A new study challenges the belief that closing one's eyes improves hearing in noise, finding it actually hinders detection of faint sounds. Researchers from Shanghai Jiao Tong University showed that relevant visual cues enhance auditory sensitivity instead. The findings were published in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.
Many people close their eyes to focus on faint sounds amid background noise, assuming it sharpens hearing by eliminating visual distractions. However, research from Shanghai Jiao Tong University reveals this strategy backfires in noisy settings. Participants struggled more to detect barely audible sounds with eyes closed compared to when viewing matching visuals, according to a study published in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America by AIP Publishing (2026; 159(3): 2513, DOI: 10.1121/10.0042380). Authors include Yu Huang, Ke Ni, Yi Wei, and Xu Zhang. In the experiment, subjects listened through headphones to sounds mixed with noise, adjusting volumes until just detectable. Conditions varied: eyes closed; eyes open on a blank screen; viewing a related still image; or watching a matching video. Results showed eyes closed impaired detection, while dynamic videos improved it. > We found that, contrary to popular belief, closing one's eyes actually impairs the ability to detect these sounds. Conversely, seeing a dynamic video corresponding to the sound significantly improves hearing sensitivity. EEG scans indicated eye closure induces 'neural criticality,' causing the brain to over-filter inputs and suppress target sounds alongside noise. > In a noisy soundscape, the brain needs to actively separate the signal from the background. We found that the internal focus promoted by eye closure actually works against you in this context, leading to over-filtering, whereas visual engagement helps anchor the auditory system to the external world. The effect is specific to noise; quieter settings may still benefit from closed eyes. Future work will test mismatched visuals, like a drum sound with a bird video, to distinguish general visual input from multisensory matching.
