Video, 28 mins
How the Brain "Talks Back" to the Ears
Your brain doesn’t just hear sound – it talks back to your ears. Find out how this works and why it matters for hearing loss.
Part of Pint of Science
8 Jul 2025 09:40
How the ear “talks” to the brain is intuitive; sound enters the ear and cells detect it, then pass this information to the brain to be pieced it back together. But the brain provides feedback to the ears, and how this functions is less intuitive and not yet understood.
Adam will introduce the concepts of how we think this feedback works, demonstrate this with an audio exercise, and discuss why researching this system is important for the treatment of hearing loss.
This talk was part of Pint of Science, an annual worldwide science festival bringing researchers and the public together. Find out more here.
Credits
- Speaker: Dr Adam Carlton (Research Fellow at the University of Sheffield)
- Event Organiser: Eleanor Jackson (PhD Researcher at the University of Sheffield)
- Video Production: David Heath (Digital Engagement Officer at the University of Sheffield)
- With support from the Public Engagement Team at the University of Sheffield