It seems like there might be yet a third sense involved in hearing – touch.

Professor Bryan Gick of UBC’s Department of Linguistics, along with PhD student Donald Derrick, completed a study that suggested that our sense of hearing might be tactically influenced. Brief percussive bursts of air directed at skin with certain syllables serve as clues to the words being spoken.

The actual mechanism might not be as straightforward as feeling the puff of air; Gick suggests that the eyes note the shape of the lips and the expulsion of air, which then registers them in the brain which in turn intuits the response. If the conclusion suggested by this study is true, our notions of hearing and hearing loss may have to be updated.

Sensory interaction is important for those with hearing loss. There is no reason that failing ears should automatically mean failed hearing; the ability of our bodies to adapt and compensate is nothing short of miraculous.