10/06/2022
FUN FACT #11 – TURNING A DEAF EAR
Do you recognize that moment when you turn down your car radio so you can see better? Especially when we think we might have gotten lost, and we want to focus on reading street names, a radio can be very distracting. Thinking about this rationally it might not make sense, after all you wouldn’t think that a radio affects your vision, or does it...?
Another common example is where you completely ignored someone who started speaking to you while you were just enjoying your favorite movie. Research refers to this phenomenon as “inattentional deafness”. Studies on humans revealed that concentration on visual tasks will render you temporarily deaf to normal-volume sounds. Brain scans showed that people were not ignoring or filtering out the sounds, but that they were not hearing them in the first place! The findings support a shared audio-visual centre, which, when depleted under load, leads to failures of sensory perception and awareness.
Now let’s look at dogs. There is an area in the brain called the thalamus. The thalamus is responsible for relaying sensory information such as hearing, sight, touch and pain. It also enables the dog to concentrate on one (!) thing at a time.
Hence, when your dog is sniffing intently (*reading his favorite book*), he will very likely not hear you! Be patient, wait for your dog to finish his “book” and then call him over. Never assume your dog is ignoring you on purpose.
