![]() This act of listening to quiet can, in itself, enrich our capacity to think and perceive. ![]() It’s a simple but powerful notion: “trying to hear in silence” can demonstrably accelerate the growth of valuable brain cells. “Functional imaging studies indicate that trying to hear in silence activates the auditory cortex,” they wrote. While Kriste and her team hypothesized that pup sounds would yield the strongest results, they found that silence, in fact, elicited the strongest response from the mice, yielding the highest number of newly grown and sustained neurons. Following the application of each sonic variable, her team measured cell growth in each mouse’s hippocampus-the region of the brain most associated with memory. ![]() Then they tested the effects on their brains of five types of sounds: white noise, mice pup sounds, Mozart’s “Sonata for Two Pianos in D,” ambient noise, and silence. Kirste and her team put mice inside anechoic chambers-tiny virtually soundless booths-for two hours a day. Several years ago, Imke Kirste, then a professor at Duke University Medical School, led an unusual study to explore an ancient inquiry: “Is silence really golden?” While the costs of noise are increasingly clear, the power of silence for the mind and body is actually something bigger and deeper than the transcendence of stress or interruption. External noise likely fed internal noise of mental chatter, damaging attention, and, in turn, challenging cognition and memory. ![]() The interference of the screeching trains probably broke students’ concentration, sending them off into their discursive thoughts, undermining their ability listen. But the issue was more than agitated amygdalae. Since the stress response to noise is well established, it was clear that intermittent spikes in decibel levels-almost on par with a heavy metal concert-were inherently problematic. In the 1970s, the pioneering environmental psychologist Arline Bronzaft found that the reading test scores of Manhattan middle schoolers whose classrooms faced a high-decibel elevated subway track lagged up to a year behind those of students in quieter classrooms on the opposite side of the building. But a broad set of peer-reviewed papers over the past few decades have shown risks that include cardiovascular disease, stroke, and depression, as well as the diverse complications that happen downstream of any of these. In 1859, reflecting on her experiences with patients in a hospital during the Crimean War, the legendary British nurse and public health innovator Florence Nightingale wrote that: “Unnecessary noise, then, is the most cruel absence of care which can be inflicted either on sick or well.” The latest research demonstrates that she had an essential point.įor years, the concern has been that excessive noise can cause hearing loss-a grave issue that can also lead to social isolation and loneliness. ![]() Too many stimuli result in excessive stress-as evidenced by the presence of chemicals like cortisol in our blood. When signals hit the amygdalae, it starts the process through which we secrete stress hormones. Neuroscientists have found that these signals go to the amygdalae, the two almond-shaped clusters of neurons that form the primary biological basis of our emotional lives-including our fight-or-flight response. Tiny hair-like structures inside the cochlea convert these movements into electrical signals which the auditory nerve transmits to the brain. When sound waves hit our eardrums, they vibrate the bones of the inner ear, causing ripples and waves in the fluids of a pea-sized, spiral-shaped cavity called the cochlea. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |