A new study has revealed a new form of ‘deafness’ that affects hearing people, called ‘inattentional deafness.”
But it’s not real deafness – it’s temporary deafness, caused by being too distracted by a visual task, such as looking at a smartphone or computer. This makes the person unable to respond to sound.
Part of the problem is that the same region of the brain covers vision and hearing, and can’t do two things at once.
A new study in the United Kingdom revealed that concentrating and placing undivided attention into a visual task can make a person temporarily deaf to sounds coming from their environment. Experts at the University College London called this deficit “inattentional deafness.”
In a study featured in the Journal of Neuroscience, UCL researchers explained that a person’s sense of vision and hearing are located in a shared and limited region of the brain called the association cortex. Because of the limitation in processing capacity, the brain is forced to choose between the two senses and fails to multi-task.
“In order to hear, we don’t just need our ears to be operating; we need our brain to respond to the sound,” said UCL Professor Nilli Lavie, co-author of the study.
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ls
December 11, 2015
Not happy with the headline, nor the implications that will be misunderstood or worse, making our REAL struggles for understanding, access and inclusion even more difficult than they already are. We hard of hearing, deafened and deaf are REALLY unable to understand speech without needed resources (e.g. captioning for media and live events too). We REALLY concentrate and pay attention. We are accused of “selective deafness” as a joke and in all seriousness too – we are disbelieved.
Sure, some research is good, maybe this one also (for certified “hearing” people) yet if we’re all in the mood to make the world understand our shared needs for resources (whatever they are, including sign language), this study disturbs me.
pennybsl
December 11, 2015
Interesting comment, Is; I also am concerned about the absence of ‘listening’ through looking in that study.
There was a study earlier this year which confirms that good learning and listening (amongst hearing people) is 20% audio and 80% visual – pushing forward the case for quality, accessible visual learning in which d/Deaf people would be better included in learning and other public listening environments.
Dee Davies
December 11, 2015
Therefore, if it is part of the same region of the brain that covers vision and hearing and the brain, as the study states: can’t do two things at once. Why is the condition not called inattentional blindness. Either way, it needs to be made clear that the study does not refer to genuine hearing and vision loss, as it will only add further to the obstacles that people with these conditions encounter on a daily basis.
Marion
December 17, 2015
I am a hearing person doing BSL level 3 this year. if I am signing with a group of deaf friends and there is loud music playing nearby, I need to stick my fingers in my ears so I can concentrate on the signing. The same thing happened at a party where I was signing with deaf people and there was loud music in the background – I just can’t process the signing at the same time, so I have to stop hearing. I also find it easier to understand someone signing if they have “voice off” otherwise my hearing brain makes me focus on the speech and not the signing! (My deaf friends seem to think all of this is very funny!)
Hartmut
December 21, 2015
So hearing people have this “disability”. But he is still healthy. Their brains automatically block auditory stimuli, when vision is being taxed heavily. This also shows that vision is more important than hearing.
I noticed that hearing people are less attuned to see things or notice events that deaf people do, like small things on the floor. Does their hearing block those visual stimuli when hearing receives more attention?