Importancia del silencio para el cerebro.
Dr. Tomás Núñez
Nowadays, we have noise around us almost all the time; we live with music, radio, television, and noises caused by people and cars every day. We need to realize the importance of silence for the brain and how harmful noise is.
Sound waves cause vibrations in the small bones of the ear, which transmit the movement to the cochlea, where these vibrations are converted into electrical signals that reach the brain. The problem is that our body is programmed to react immediately to these signals, even in the middle of a deep sleep. Therefore, noise activates the amygdala, which responds by stimulating the production of hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol, which increase our stress levels and blood pressure.
Until recently, scientists believed that neurons could not regenerate and the progressive loss of the number of neurons was inevitable. Recently, a group of German researchers from the Research Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden discovered that silence dramatically impacts the brain.
These scientists found that in the brains of mice that remained silent for two hours each day, new cells grew in the hippocampus, the brain region related to memory, emotions, and learning. This can be extrapolated to humans; remaining silent for even a short period can be very beneficial as it helps us preserve memory and be more flexible in the face of changes.
When the body rests, other processes begin to develop that complement those that occur when we are active.
What happens is that a kind of purification occurs. The brain evaluates the information and experiences we have been exposed to throughout the day. It then organizes and integrates the relevant information and discards what is not important.
This process is completely unconscious, but it produces conscious effects. That is why it happens that sometimes we find answers during sleep. Or we manage to see things from a new perspective after resting for a few hours. The interesting thing about all this is that a similar process also occurs when we are silent. The absence of auditory stimuli has almost the same effect as rest. Silence generally leads us to think about ourselves, and this purifies our emotions and reaffirms our identity.
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