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Our eyes involuntarily dilate in response to sound, which means they offer a potential new way to test hearing.
In 1998, University of Oregon researcher Avinash Singh Bala was working with barn owls in an Institute of Neuroscience lab when the birds' eyes caught his attention.
The usual research done in the lab, led by Terry Takahashi, focuses on how barn owls process sounds, with the idea that such knowledge could lead to improved hearing devices for people.
But those eyes. Every time the owls heard an unexpected sound, their eyes dilated.
"So, we asked, might this work in humans?" Bala says. "We thought, if so, it would be a great way to assess hearing in people who cannot respond by pushing a button, raising a hand, or talking, such as babies, older children with developmental deficits, and adults who are suffering from a debilitating disorder or are too sick to respond."...