Does Closing Your Eyes Improve Your Hearing? Have you ever tried closing your eyes to hear your teacher better in a noisy classroom? People do this because they think that by blocking one sense (sight), their brain can focus on another sense (sound). But scientists from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China wanted to see if this really works. They found out that closing your eyes might help in quiet places, but in noisy places, it can actually make it harder to hear. The scientists used special devices to measure the brain activity and hearing of 25 volunteers. They had to listen to different sounds like a canoe paddle, drum, bird chirp, train noise, and keyboard typing. First, they listened with their eyes closed, then with a blank screen, then with a visual of the sound, and finally with a video of the sound. The results were surprising: the volunteers could hear the sounds better when their eyes were open. When their eyes were closed, they had to turn up the volume to hear the sound, but with a blank screen or visual of the sound, they could turn it down and still hear it. The scientists found out that when our eyes are closed, our brain filters out too much noise, including the sound we're trying to hear. But this study only looked at noisy places, and closing your eyes in quiet places might actually help you hear better. Did you know that understanding how our eyes and ears talk to our brain can help us learn how to improve our hearing and sight? So, does closing your eyes improve your hearing? Actually, we need to do more research to find out. But for now, it seems that closing your eyes in noisy places can make it harder to hear.