[msb-alumni] Study: Blindfold could boost hearing
- From: Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 7 Feb 2014 12:55:22 -0500
BlankThis is interesting. In the past, when sighted people claimed my
hearing must be better to compensate for the loss of sight, I denied that.
My impression was that we just were more attentive to what we heard. This
article sites some new research which may very well indicate that their
impressions were more spot on.
Steve
Study: Blindfold could boost hearing By Kim Painter, Special for USA TODAY
People with impaired hearing might someday be able to improve their hearing
by spending time in dark rooms or wearing blindfolds, a study in mice
suggests. The study, published in the journal Neuron, adds evidence that
muting one sense can enhance another, even in adults, say researchers from
the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University. The researchers put
adult mice with normal vision and hearing in a completely dark room for a
week and found that they emerged with better hearing. But that wasn't all:
Cells in a layer of the brain devoted to hearing actually changed in ways
that enhanced hearing. These neurons were not previously thought to be
changeable in adults. "The fact that the brain could change this way in
adults was not only surprising, but a very hopeful sign for us," says study
co-author Hey-Kyoung Lee, an associate professor of neuroscience at Johns
Hopkins. The mice lost the hearing gains after a few weeks. So the
scientists say they need to see if there's a way to induce permanent
changes -- or to translate the findings to humans. Lee says she would not
recommend putting people in dark rooms for as long as the mice. But shorter
stretches might work, she says. Even if such a technique pans out, Lee says,
it would only enhance sound processing, not create hearing in people who are
completely deaf. So, for example, it might help someone with a new cochlear
implant or hearing aid make better sense of all the new sounds coming in.
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