Selective hearing: ‘It’s all in the mind’

And,according to the scientists,the study could help explain why people with hearing difficulties lose this ability and are swamped by background noise,thereby pave the way for combating deafness,’The Daily Telegraph’ reported.

“We are only just beginning to appreciate the role the brain and this research gives us hope for improving not just the performance of implants and hearing aids,but the lives of people with hearing disabilities everywhere,” Vivienne Michael of Deafness Research UK which is carrying out the study,said.

Simultaneously,a team at University College London’s Ear Institute is using a variety of techniques to investigate the issue,including psychophysics,the study of sensations,and neurophysiology,the study of nervous system and brain.

They are particularly interested in why some people are better able to zone out background and concentrate in the noisiest environments.

The ability can be critical and early research in the 1950s focused on the problems faced by air traffic controllers,when multiple messages were received from pilots over a single loudspeaker.

If the brain pathways that allow this ability are found,then it may be possible to repair the ability in deaf people,say the scientists.

Research ha s already shown it is particularly those with only one functional ear who are more disturbed by interfering noise.

It is believed the auditory system in the brain mix and match sounds from different ears and then filter out the unwanted noise. The brain has been described as a radio tuner,selecting which channel we should pay attention to from the many it receives.

“Scientists are particularly interested in how the central auditory system is able to cope with noisy environments,a major challenge for hearing research over the next decade will be to improve the performance of cochlear implant devices.

“Bionic hearing provides a remarkable chance for the deaf to hear,sometimes for the very first time. Implant users struggle to pick up speech in noisy environments such as pubs and city streets.

“Future research in this field should aim to understand how to match the electronic signals of a cochlear implant with the brain’s requirements for listening in noise,” said Michael.