Small sonic doses benefit physiology while large doses harm and total silence degrades it
Evidence
The physiological reaction to different levels of sonic saturation reļ¬ects the mechanism of the hormesis. Hormesis is deļ¬ned as a dose response wherein a small amount of the agent is beneļ¬cial and a large dose may have negative effects, and this hormesis principle (Fig. 5.6) can be applied to the sonic ambience. People relegated to an environment without acoustic stimuli, as in an anechoic chamber, feel isolation and insecurity. People require a background of sounds to maintain their physiological functions. ā Almo Farina, Soundscape Ecology, 1024
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the earlier chaptersā treatment of silence as a positive presence ā this flips it by showing a total absence of acoustic stimulus is physiologically destabilizing. ā connects to: Subconscious sound processing treats noise as danger signals during sleep ā Almo Farina, Soundscape Ecology: Principles,ā¦, 1468
- QUESTION: Does this hormesis claim conflict with the deep-listening literature that treats extreme quiet as restful? Worth reconciling.