Hearing
Cognitive ability tied to understanding speech in noisy settings, study finds
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Among people with clinically normal hearing, intellectual ability strongly predicted how well they understood speech amid competing voices, according to a peer-reviewed study from University of Washington researchers.
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.
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Researchers at Concordia University have discovered that people blink less when concentrating on speech amid background noise, highlighting a link between eye behavior and cognitive effort. This pattern persists regardless of lighting conditions, suggesting it's driven by mental demands rather than visual factors. The findings, published in Trends in Hearing, could offer a simple way to measure brain function during listening tasks.