Researchers from the University of John Hopkins conducted an experiment to study the perception of the human brain of absolute silence. That is, a specific physical phenomenon in which there are no acoustic waves in space. It turned out that a person can hear such a silence, although it is impossible.
For a long time, the question of the possibility of hearing the silence was posed as a philosophical, due to the incorrect interpretation of the very concept of silence. Today we know that silence is the lack of sound, fluctuations in the medium. Since the human hearing system is based on the perception and interpretation of these fluctuations, in their absence it is in a state of inaction. Therefore, it is impossible to “hear” the silence.
However, American scientists during experiments with sound illusions for 1000 experimental people revealed an interesting pattern – the brain of people did not remain passive, it reacted even to absolute silence. The scheme of his activity reminded the reaction to other sounds – the mind of the observed tried to understand what he hears, and how to do this information. It turns out that a person can hear silence, even if he does not really hear anything.
Source — Johns Hopkins University