2023-09-12 17:53:24
Hearing loss is often diagnosed years after the first signs appear. Researchers show how to anticipate the diagnosis by… the look.
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Of previous studies showed that when people think a lot, their eyes don’t move that much. Psychologist Éric Cui and cognitive neuroscientist Björn Herrmann show that the phenomenon also concerns hearing in a new study “ Eye movements decrease when listening to speech with effort » published in the Journal of Neuroscience.
For example, when we try to hear a conversation in a busy restaurant, our eyes tend to stay still. The results of this research suggest that the more a person has difficulty hearing, the more fixed their gaze. Obviously, listening strain is not always due to hearing loss, but it could be one of the first signs that a person is having difficulty hearing.
Three experiments with similar conclusions
In practice, the researchers conducted three experiments with around twenty participants for each. They conclude that fixation duration increases and spatial dispersion of gaze decreases with increasing speech masking, that is, with difficulty hearing speech.
Hearing problems are often diagnosed by a sound test a decade or two after the first signs of hearing difficulties appear. This may then reveal the need to wear hearing aids. The new eye assessment method could help diagnose impairment earlier.
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#unexpected #sign #warns #hearing #loss