A period of temporary blindness has been shown to dramatically improve hearing in adult mice.
New research has demonstrated that the brains of adult mice can rewire themselves to compensate for a period of temporary blindness. The part of the brain devoted to hearing became markedly more developed, making the mice more sensitive to noise and better at distinguishing sounds. It was previously believed that such changes in the brain could only occur in the very young.
Further studies into the interconnectedness of the senses in the brain have the potential to help researchers treat sensory problems in humans, such as tinnitus and deafness.
Read more at University of Maryland