MEDICINE

Peace and Quiet: the therapeutic potential of silence 🤐

Historically, silence is promoted as a healing process. Many meditation techniques used to therapeutically reduce anxiety involve phases of quietness. Many people favour the rural outdoors over a busy city when in need of a relieving getaway. Is there neuroscience to explain this preference beyond the tendency for silence to be surrounded by fewer stress-inducing stimuli and, perhaps more importantly, how far could this go in terms of treatment? One main theory behind this is that silence reduces the activity in the default mode network (critically including the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex) of our brain: a set of interconnected brain regions that regulate cortical activity when we are at rest or not engaged in a particular task. It is closely related to our internal mind chatter, which can promote rumination, anxiety, and depression and thus, by aiming to reduce its activation through silence, these experiences can be reduced. Scientists not entirely satisfied with this theory, with other ideas suggesting that silence can hone decision-making, or that peripheral repair mechanisms are improved, indirectly promoting better mental health.

💡 Things to consider

• Interception and awareness: Interception refers to one’s ability to observe and identify what is going on in one’s body. Poor interception correlates with anxiety and an inability to rationalise physiological sensations may be a substrate for mental health conditions. Therefore, some theories suggest that silence allows for enhanced focussing on physiological sensations and improved synchrony between the mind and body, which can contribute to a reduction in anxiety.

• Urban/rural anxiety patterns: Given that correlations have been identified between noise and stress, it would follow that those living in loud urban environments may show increased stress-related conditions levels compared to those in more tranquil, rural settings. A 2023 study found that anxiety symptoms are correlated with greater density of streets and leisure places, as well as urban regions with mixed residential, commercial and industrial use. This may be a product of noise, however, the number of confounding factors in this relationship makes it hard to be conclusive. Future experiments could focus on identifying a more direct relationship between noise and anxiety…

• Applications to treatment: The potential for silence to be applied to anxiety treatment is huge. On a smaller scale, individuals could be advised to seek silence where they can, such as going for a walk in the woods or meditating with earplugs in. Clinically, silence could be implicated in therapy sessions to provide a guided method to dealing with anxious thoughts and building a psychological sanctuary. Recently, there has been some interest in flotation tanks: small pods insulated with salty water to block out external noise. Research has found that they lead to reduced stress, muscle tension and pain after just a one-hour float. The suitability of this to medicine is not yet answered. However, it provides an interesting basis to the development of silence therapy regardless.

🔎 Find out more

• Xu, J., Liu, N., Polemiti, E. et al. Effects of urban living environments on mental health in adults. Nat Med 29, 1456–1467 (2023).

LAW

What is the EU? 🇪🇺

The European Union was created post-WWII to try and unify a broken Europe and grow their economies. It is split into different areas. The European Commission propose new laws. The Council of the EU then adopt the proposed laws. The European Parliament is made up of people elected from each member state and they pass EU laws with the Council of the EU and have a more general supervisory role too. The CJEU is the EU Court of Justice.

💡 Things to consider

• Mutual Recognition: There is an assumption that regulations in member states are just different ways of solving the same problem, and since they all follow EU law, they should be valid in every member state. For example, different member states will have different types of exams in high school, but (when the UK was still in the EU) my GCSEs and A-Levels would be seen as equivalent to the same type of exam in a different member state; so, they must be accepted there too as an equivalent to the exam they do. This leads into the Freedom of Movement section, since member states must usually accept goods that are made following the regulations of another member state.

• Freedom of Movement: A single internal market has been created which facilitates the free movement of goods, persons, services, workers, etc. It basically means that there should be free movement of these things between the member states. Any national law that restricts this and can’t be justified on narrow grounds, like public interest or public health, is nullified by EU law. Member states must treat people, goods, etc from other member states the same way they treat those from their own country. This is supposed to increase efficiency and make sure that resources can go to wherever they are most needed and valued.

• Supremacy: The CJEU argues that for EU law to hold any authority or have any effect across all the member states, it must have priority over every member state’s national laws. If there is a conflict between a national law and an EU law, the EU law will win and the national law will immediately be ineffective against EU citizens. Even if the law was a part of the member state’s national constitution (containing their most fundamental principles), it must still be inferior to EU law (see the case Internationale Handelsgesellschaft). Some member states have a bigger problem with this than others, especially with supremacy over national constitutions. For instance, Germany doesn’t like to follow the EU rules unless they comply with their own laws (see the German Federal Constitutional Court’s response to the EU case ‘Heinrich Weiss and others’).

🔎 Find out more

• https://op.europa.eu/webpub/com/eu-what-it-is/en/

• https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/21164710

• C-120/78 Cassis de Dijon [1979] ECR 649 (freedom of movement case)

• C-11/70 Internationale Handelsgesellschaft

• C-493/17 Heinrich Weiss and others vs. Weiss, 1 BvR 859/15 5 May 2020

🍒 The cherry on top

• ❤️ An isolated tribe in the ‘Heart of the World’: The Kogi living nearest to the tops of the mountains, cut themselves off from the world below and maintained almost total isolation. His journey to speak with the Kogi people leads him to a different journey altogether… a great read if you’re interested in Anthropology, Geography, and the Environment.

• 🤖 What should schools do about AI?: With the rise of AI chatbots, more and more people are asking questions about the implications on the education system. This YouTube video is great for those interested in Education!

• 💁‍♂️ Reagan's Landslide Victory: In 1984, President Ronald Reagan won a historic re-election, securing victories in 49 of the 50 states and earning the highest number of electoral votes ever. This is a great article if you’re interested in History or Politics.

👀 Keep your eyes peeled for…

• 16th January - University of Oxford History Super-Curricular Lecture (League of Nations Mandate System)

• 16th January - University of Oxford Insight into Ecology in Marine Ecosystem Planning Lecture

• 16th January - University of Cambridge (St John’s College) Admissions Clinic

• 16th January - University of Cambridge Mature Students Webinar

• 17th January - UEA Personal Statement Webinar

• 17th January - UEA Psychology Taster Lecture (Neuroscience)

• 17th January - University of Cambridge Public Lecture (The Cross, Torture, and Public Theology)

• 17th January - University of Oxford Insight into Gerontology Taster Lecture

• 18th January - UEA French Taster Lecture (French Politics)

🗳️ Poll