“Unlocking the Surprising, Interconnected Benefits of Improving Both Eyesight and Hearing”

A new study has found that covering one eye with an eye patch for about two hours improves not only vision but also hearing.

A joint research team from the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca in Italy and the University of Ulm in Germany asked 20 participants to cover their eyes with an eye patch for about two hours and count the number of times they saw a simple flash of light when a specific sound was heard. During the experiment, brain activity was accurately recorded in milliseconds (milliseconds) on an electroencephalogram (EEG).

As a result of the study, it was confirmed that after the blindfold was removed, the neural activity in the brain changed noticeably in response to visual and auditory input information. Both vision and hearing were found to be much better than before the blindfold was applied.

Dr. Alessandra Federico (cognitive neuroscientist), the first author of the study, said, “For the first time, it has been shown that even if one eye is covered for a short period of time, the brain responds to sounds and even affects auditory processing.” After the blindfold was removed, the brain became more sensitive to new visual information provided by the covered eye, as if nerve excitability increased due to lack of input information. Vision and hearing show strict interdependence, and changes in vision also affect hearing, maintaining a balance between the two.

The brain has an important ability to adapt to different sensory experiences and ‘compensate’ for the lack of sensation in some way. Previous research has shown that when vision is lost for a short period of time, such as covering one eye for a few hours, the brain temporarily changes the way it processes visual information. However, it has not been known until now whether this effect goes beyond sight and affects other senses, such as hearing.

The brain also became more sensitive to auditory input, but it reacted very selectively when monitoring the environment with the other, uncovered eye. Sensory plasticity (a phenomenon in which the brain changes depending on the environment and experiences) that occurs after a long period of loss of sensation due to blindness or hearing loss has been proven in several studies. In this study, it was clearly revealed that the high plasticity and interdependence of the senses, and that sensory experiences have a lasting and profound effect on the brain.

The results of this study are expected to help design a rehabilitation program that can more effectively respond to disabilities and diseases such as amblyopia. The results of this study (Crossmodal plasticity following short-term monocular deprivation) were published in the international journal NeuroImage.