Close concentration can block one's ability to hear

Becoming engrossed in a good book or a crossword really can block the ability to hear, a study has found. Scientists demonstrated that when someone focuses their full attention on something, they can become deaf to normally audible sounds. It happens because visual and hearing senses are trying to share limited brain capacity, they said. But it can have serious consequences, and could be the cause of some road accidents. The phenomenon is known as inattentive deafness. Study leader Professor Nilli Lavie, from the Institute of Cognitive Neuro-science at University College London, said: "Inattentional deafness is a common everyday experience. For example, when engrossed in a good book or even a captivating newspaper article, we may fail to hear the train driver's announcement and miss our stop." Or if we are texting while walking, we may fail to hear a car approaching and attempt to cross the road without looking. In the study, 100 volunteers performed computer tasks involving a series of cross shapes while wearing headphones. From / Gulf News