A new study reveals that visually concentrating too much may cause temporary deafness. Researchers have found that the brain often chooses between the sense of vision and hearing during this case.
Scientists from the University College London discovered that the processing capacity of the brain for the vision and hearing senses are limited that the brain is forced to choose between the two when both are in use at the same time.
The study was conducted by allowing 14 people to do visual tasks with music accompaniment. The difficulty of the tasks were also increased so that the researchers can monitor the changes in the subjects' brain activity.
The scientists have observed that during the difficult tasks, the response of the brain to sound was reduced which means that the visual sense is the priority. According to the researchers, the subjects did not just ignore the sounds but they actually failed to hear them because they were so concentrated on the tasks.
According to Professor Nilli Lavie of psychology and brain sciences at the University College London who is also one of the authors of the study, a person does not only need his ears to hear but also needs his brain to respond to the sound.
"If our brain doesn't respond because our attention is fully taken by another task, then we experience deafness," Lavie stated.
Professor Lavie also added that their study has confirmed what most people usually experienced about not hearing while visually concentrating.
"It's because the brain signal related to hearing is significantly reduced during more demanding visual tasks," the professor added.
This might explain why individuals who are playing with their phones cannot hear their friends calling them. The study also corrects our beliefs that people can be good at multitasking since the brain chooses between the sense of vision or hearing.
The study has been published in the Journal of Neuroscience.
