Close Your Eyes and Let’s Crank It Up

Close Your Eyes and Let’s Crank It Up

February 7, 2014 • Blog, Health

A new study from the University of Maryland and John Hopkins University has found that reducing a person’s sight may permanently increase hearing faculties.

The study, which was published in a recent issue of Neuron, used adult mice to map out how inhibiting different neural connections associated with sight may influence those with hearing. Researchers accomplished this by placing the mice in a dark room for a week in order to gauge whether or not their hearing improved.

Researchers discovered that the primary auditory cortex, which is a part of the brain that processes sounds, especially those associated with pitch and loudness underwent a significant change. According to Patrick Kanold, “What we see is that the cortex, the part of the brain that process auditory information, can separate frequencies better [in the dark].” However, after only a few weeks in a normally lit environment, the changes reverted to normal.

At the moment, researchers are hoping that the findings could lead to treatments to assist those dealing with hearing loss. Kanold stated, “This could help when you have auditory processing disorders, when you don’t understand speech as well. Depriving you of vision temporarily might actually improve this kind of condition.”

The research is currently ongoing as part of a five-year study and they are currently looking into ways to make the improvements in hearing permanent.

http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/life/health/blog.html?b=life.nationalpost.com/2014/02/05/simulated-blindness-may-sharpen-hearing-in-adults-u-s-study-finds&pubdate=2014-02-05

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