by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
March 1, 2016
A recent article (1) noted that people can’t use their eyes and ears well at the same time when they are intently concentrating watching one thing while listening to something else.
This article began,
Do you ever get accused of “not listening” because you’re glancing down at your phone?
It then went on to explain that when a person is concentrating on reading something on his cell phone, it causes him to become temporarily deaf to normal-volume sounds.
Researchers analyzed “the real-time brain activity of 13 volunteers as they completed visual tasks while sounds played in the background. As the tasks got harder, the brain’s response to sound was reduced.”
What was the result?
The brain scans showed that people were not only ignoring or filtering out the sounds, they were not actually hearing them in the first place…. These findings suggest that our vision and our hearing share limited resources in the brain, which is essentially forced to choose between processing info from our eyes or our ears. (1)
Our brains only have so much “horsepower” and if we use almost all of it on seeing, there is little left to process sound.
I’ve observed this over many decades. When we concentrate on reading something, we don’t pay attention to what we are hearing. We can’t. Our brains have run out of horsepower.
For example, if I am on the phone talking with a person and want to look up something they are asking about on my computer, when I focus on reading the information on my screen, I realize I don’t have a clue what they have just been telling me. I need to first listen to them, then have them remain silent while I search for the information they want.
Another reason for not being able to hear well when we are concentrating on reading something totally unrelated is that our brains do not multitask. Thus, you are either reading or listening—not both. You have to rapidly switch back and forth between the two. Even so, in the instances when you are reading, you are missing hearing things so you end up with many gaps in what the person was saying.
Thus, between running out of brain horsepower and trying to multitask, we typically don’t succeed at either reading or listening when trying to do both at the same time.
This is why when listening to beautiful classical music, some people shut their eyes so their brains can use all their resources to let them fully enjoy the music. I do that too myself since there is no visual aspect when listening to recorded music.
In the same manner, people with normal hearing, when they are really concentrating on hearing something under difficult listening conditions, often shut their eyes so they can hear better. (Instead of shutting their eyes, some just stare at something “blank” such as the ceiling or floor to get rid of any visual clutter that would reduce their hearing.) Just doing this frees up the visual horsepower which is then switched over to help them hear better.
That’s how hearing people’s ears and brains work.
Hard of hearing people’s brains work the same, but with a twist.
As a hard of hearing person, I always thought it asinine that hearing people would shut their eyes when they were straining to hear speech. This is because all my life I knew I needed both my eyes and my ears in order to make sense of what a person was saying when trying to hear under difficult listening conditions—which for me as a hard of hearing person is pretty much all the time.
When people are speaking, hard of hearing people like me need to see the person’s lips moving (for speechreading) while, at the same time, straining to pick up the sounds they are saying. The good news is that when we concentrate on the same message, our eyes and our ears work together synergistically to better let us hear (understand) what a person is saying.
And if we look away—say at our cell phones—we just plain don’t hear them anyway!
Those of us with severe hearing losses from birth instinctively know this, but people with normal hearing that lose their hearing later in life don’t. Thus, they can have a hard time breaking their habit of shutting their eyes in order to hear better.
This was brought home to me when I was taking a speechreading instructor’s training program. Some of us in the class were hard of hearing from birth, and some had lost hearing later in life, like the man sitting beside me.
At one point the instructor was mouthing words silently or with a very low voice to see how well we could speechread her—and there was the man beside me, hands cupped under his chin as he stared intently at the floor straining to “hear”! Needless to say, he missed the whole exercise.
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(1) Reliford, Alexis. February 20, 2016. The weird way looking at your phone can mess with your hearing. Fox News. http://www.foxnews.com/health/2016/02/20/weird-way-looking-at-your-phone-can-mess-with-your-hearing.html.
I have a very important question about this, can anyone please email me back?
Hi Joanne:
You can pose your question here publicly, or if you want to send it privately, my email is at the bottom of every page on this website.
Cordially,
Neil
I was trying to study for an exam and my girlfriend was on the phone with me and i didn’t hear anything she had said while i was studying. Is this the same case as what’s in the article?
Hi Xander:
No, what I wrote about was between competing senses. In your case, you were studying and when you use all your mental horsepower to study, you cut out other unnecessary distractions–in this case your girlfriend. Basically, you were just tuning her out so you could study. (Incidentally, that’s not the way to treat a girlfriend if you want to stay friends.) Better to tell her you have to study and hang up. Then when you phone her after the exam, be all there for her.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi doctor Neil
Today I was playing some videogames and I had my speakers on (no headset whatsoever), my wife called me to have our lunch but I couldn’t hear her, something similar happens to me when I drive. I can mantain a conversation with other person in the car, but I’m so focused on the task that after that I can’t remember what we were talking about.
*Is there something I could do to improve my attention/listening?* Specially when I play. This has become a really bad problem between my wife and I, bringing a lot of discussions along the week. She says that I can hear but I’m ignoring her
Hi Diego:
Some people just focus more on one task and so can’t multitask very well. You seem to be one of them. Some people can’t talk and drive. My brother tends to be that way. Other people turn off the radio when they are driving in a strange place and are trying to find an address because they need all their cognitive horsepower to find their destination.
Some people when watching a movie get so adsorbed in it that the house could burn down around them and they wouldn’t notice. My first wife was that way. I think that is just the way people are and its hard to change that. So your wife calling to you when you are engrossed in a video game is just not going to get a response from you.
Instead of getting mad at you for not listening, she needs to change her tactics. Instead of calling to you, all she needs to do is come to you and put a hand on your shoulder. That should get your attention. Then, on your part, you need to stop what you are doing and look up at her–thus giving her all your attention. Then she can tell you that supper is ready or whatever and you WILL hear her.
She needs to realize that you are not deliberately ignoring her–your brain is ignoring everything except that which you are focused on. That is why she needs to come to you to get your attention. And then, on your part, you need to stop whatever you are doing and give her ALL your attention.
My wife has to do the same with me, and me with her because we are both hard of hearing and can’t listen (which takes all my cognitive ability to strain to hear, speechread and try to make sense of what I am hearing) and do anything else at the same time. Different causes–but the solution is the same.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Neil,
Is it possible to have a reduction in hearing, or for sounds to be muffled when under chronic stress? For example, I somehow got it into my head a few months ago that I wasn’t able to hear sounds clearly. Then it seemed to actually happened and seemed to get worse over the next couple weeks. Sometimes, sounds seems much clearer, but then the next day they sound more muffled. One time I was watching TV and things sounded louder and clear. Then part way though, everything sounded softer and muffled and I had some trouble making out what the people on TV were saying. The whole time I was watching, in the back of my mind I was thinking about my ears and the ability to hear well. And suddenly the TV sounded muffled. Another time, I could hear the clock ticking in the living room at all, even after standing and listening to it for about 3 minutes. Later in the day, I could hear it very clearly. Sometimes, I wonder, “What if I’m not able to hear this particular sound very clearly anymore?” And then the next day, sure enough, I’m not able to hear that sound very clearly. It sounds duller. The only other thing I can tell you is that I have a very tight neck and shoulder problem (particularly on the left side of my body) and some TMJ problems, which I’ve had for many years. Sometimes I’ll wake up and my teeth will be sore (I have a permanent wire on the left side of my bottom teeth – the part of the wire on the right side broke off years ago and I don’t have much stiffness or tightness/tension on the right side of my jaw or neck/shoulders).
I used to keep a diary and I noticed that 15 years ago I was experiencing the same hearing issues on and off for a few years. 15 years ago I was missing peoples words. From 2006 to 2009, I had 7 hearing tests and they all came out normal. But I was still having so many issues with my hearing. Then everything seemed normal in the last 6 years or so with no issues missing people’s words or having to strain to hear and having sounds muddled or muffled up – everything sounded clear and sharp, as far as I’m concerned. Now it’s started up again since a few months ago. Is it possible to somehow “trick” the brain into believing it can’t hear very well, and then for sounds to be attenuated or dull and, as a result, have to strain to hear words or sounds – or miss words altogether?
Thank you,
Imran
Hi Imran:
Chronic stress constricts your blood vessels to some degree. Some of the smallest blood vessels in your body are in your inner ears. Any constriction of these blood vessels means less blood (and thus less oxygen) reaches your inner ears, thus they do not function as well–and you may perceive this as either muffled hearing or hearing loss.
Increasing blood flow can restore hearing in such cases. Thus taking a vasodilator such as Ginkgo biloba, or Nicotinic acid (Vitamin B3), etc. can counteract this. Note that the form of Vitamin B3 is important. You need to take the form (nicotinic acid) that gives you a flush which is the result of relaxed blood vessels so more blood flows.
Blood flow to your ears can be inhibited by various drugs (such as Ibuprofen) giving the same result.
The same thing can happen if your neck/shoulders/TMJ is tight, thus also constricting blood flow to your inner ears. This can often be remedied by chiropractic treatments and/or massage therapy.
I don’t know whether you can trick your brain or not, but your thoughts can become a self-fulfilling prophecy as they can affect your perception of sound, not the actual sounds themselves. This is very evident when you have tinnitus.
Cordially,
Neil