Simulated Blindness Can Help Revive Hearing

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland have found in a recent study that minimizing a person’s sight for as little as one week may help improve the brain’s ability to process hearing. Using mouse-model experiments, researchers were able to uncover how the neural connections in the area of the brain that manages vision and hearing work together to support each sense. Findings from this study could help those experiencing hearing loss regain more use of that sense. In the experiment, researchers placed adult mice in a darkened environment to simulate blindness for about one week, and monitored their response to certain sounds. Those responses were then compared to a second group of mice that were placed in a naturally-lit environment. The researchers found a change in brain circuitry of the mice that experienced simulated blindness, specifically in the primary auditory cortex, which allows for conscious perception of pitch and loudness. To read more about this study, click here.