Shanghai Jiao Tong University Study Finds Closing Eyes Impairs Auditory Detection In High Noise Environments

New research shows that closing your eyes in noisy places can lead to over-filtering, making it harder to hear faint sounds compared to staying visually engaged.

By: AXL Media

Published: Mar 17, 2026, 12:23 PM EDT

Source: Information for this report was sourced from American Institute of Physics

Challenging the Sensory Compensation Myth

For generations, the conventional wisdom has suggested that closing one's eyes helps a person focus on faint sounds by freeing up the brain's processing power. However, new research published in the journal JASA indicates that this strategy may be counterproductive when navigating loud or chaotic background noise. Scientists from Shanghai Jiao Tong University discovered that participants struggled more to detect specific audio signals when their eyes were closed compared to when they were visually engaged with their surroundings. This suggests that the relationship between vision and hearing is more collaborative than competitive in noisy environments.

The State of Neural Criticality and Signal Filtering

To understand the biological mechanisms behind these results, researchers utilized electroencephalography (EEG) to monitor the brain activity of volunteers. The data showed that closing the eyes shifts the brain into a state of "neural criticality." In this state, the brain’s auditory system becomes more aggressive in its filtering processes. While this might be helpful in a silent room, author Yu Huang explains that in a noisy soundscape, this internal focus leads to over-filtering. This means the brain accidentally suppresses the very sounds a person is trying to hear along with the background noise they are trying to ignore.

The Anchoring Effect of Visual Engagement

The study tested several visual states: eyes closed, eyes open looking at a blank screen, viewing a still image, and watching a dynamic video that matched the sound. The results were clear: seeing a video that corresponded to the audio significantly boosted hearing sensitivity. Visual engagement appears to act as a sensory "anchor," helping the brain separate a specific signal from a sea of background noise. Rather than distracting the brain, the visual information provided a roadmap for the auditory system to follow, allowing it to lock onto the target sound more effectively than it could in total darkness.