Does Closing Your Eyes Really Help You Hear Better, or Is It Just a Myth?

Key Points:

• A study from Shanghai Jiao Tong University published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America finds that closing your eyes impairs the ability to detect sounds in noisy environments, contradicting the common belief that eye closure enhances hearing.
• Participants detected target sounds at lower volumes when watching related videos, with video visuals improving hearing sensitivity by nearly 3 decibels compared to a baseline with eyes open on a blank screen.
• EEG data revealed that closing the eyes induces intense internal focus, causing the brain to "overfilter" sounds and reduce sensitivity to both background noise and target signals, whereas visual engagement keeps auditory processing anchored to the external environment.
• The findings highlight that in everyday noisy settings like traffic or offices, keeping eyes open and visually engaged aids hearing, contrasting with earlier studies showing eye closure benefits in quiet rooms.
• The research also suggests that congruent audiovisual stimuli enhance auditory detection, prompting further investigation into how sensory matching versus mere eye openness affects hearing performance.