In noisy environments, keeping your eyes open—not closed—might be the secret to hearing better.
Many people instinctively shut their eyes when trying to pick out a faint sound. The common belief is that blocking out visual input helps the brain focus, making it easier to hear subtle noises. But that idea does not always hold up, especially in loud, busy environments.
Researchers from Shanghai Jiao Tong University set out to test this assumption in a study published in JASA, on behalf of the Acoustical Society of America by AIP Publishing. Their goal was to find out whether closing your eyes actually improves hearing when background noise is present.
Testing Hearing With Eyes Open and Closed
In the experiment, participants listened to various sounds through headphones while background noise played. They adjusted the volume of each sound until it was just barely detectable over the noise.
The researchers then repeated this task under different visual conditions. Participants tried it with their eyes closed, then with their eyes open while looking at a blank screen, followed by viewing a still image related to the sound, and finally watching a video that matched the sound.
Surprising Results in Noisy Environments
The findings challenged a widely held belief. “We found that, contrary to popular belief, closing one’s eyes actually impairs the ability to detect these sounds,” said author Yu Huang. “Conversely, seeing a dynamic video corresponding to the sound significantly improves hearing sensitivity.”
In other words, shutting your eyes made it harder to hear faint sounds in noise, while relevant visual input made it easier.
Brain Activity Reveals Why Vision Helps Hearing
To understand what was happening in the brain, the team used electroencephalography (EEG) to monitor participants’ neural activity. The results showed that closing the eyes pushes the brain into a state known as neural criticality. In this state, the brain filters incoming information more aggressively.
That filtering does not just remove background noise. It can also suppress the very sounds participants are trying to detect.
“In a noisy soundscape, the brain needs to actively separate the signal from the background,” said Huang. “We found that the internal focus promoted by eye closure actually works against you in this context, leading to over-filtering, whereas visual engagement helps anchor the auditory system to the external world.”
When Closing Your Eyes Still Helps
The researchers noted that these results apply specifically to noisy situations. In quieter settings, closing your eyes may still improve your ability to notice faint sounds.
However, since most everyday environments include significant background noise, keeping your eyes open may often be the better strategy.
What Comes Next for Multisensory Research
The team plans to continue exploring how vision and hearing interact. One key question is whether the benefit comes simply from having visual input or from seeing something that matches the sound.
“Specifically, we want to test incongruent pairings — for example, what happens if you hear a drum but see a bird?” said Huang. “Does the visual boost come from simply having the eyes open and processing more visual information, or does the brain require the visual and audio information to match perfectly? Understanding this distinction will help us separate the general effects of attention from the specific benefits of multisensory integration.”
Reference: “Visual engagement modulates cortical criticality and auditory target detection thresholds in noisy soundscapes” by Ke Ni, Yu Huang, Yi Wei and Xu Zhang, 17 March 2026, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.
DOI: 10.1121/10.0042380
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