EYES AND EARS synergise with each other to have better coordination of sensation comprising of sound and sight. Simply moving the eyes triggers the eardrums to move too, says a new study by Duke University neuroscientists. The researchers found that keeping the head still but shifting the eyes to one side or the other sparks vibrations in the eardrums, even in the absence of any sounds.
Surprisingly, these eardrum vibrations start slightly before the eyes move, indicating that motion in the ears and the eyes are controlled by the same motor commands deep within the brain. “It’s like the brain is saying, ‘I’m going to move the eyes, I better tell the eardrums, too," said a professor in the departments of neurobiology and psychology and neuroscience at Duke. The findings, which were replicated in both humans and rhesus monkeys, provide new insight into how the brain coordinates what we…
