SENSE AND SENSIBILITY

HOw to boost the power of your senses. This week: Hearing OUR hearing deteriorates when the tiny hairs that conduct sound through the ears become damaged or die as a result of age or exposure to loud noise. It’s not yet possible to restore these, but scientists at Harvard University recently found you can train your brain to pick up sound more effectively.

For three-and-a half hours a week, a group of 24 people around the age of 70 used a brain- training game that taught them to focus on a specific sound through background noise. After eight weeks, they picked up 25 per cent more words in noisy surroundings, according to the journal Current Biology.

In a 2013 trial by Northwestern University in the U.S., people using the game Brain Fitness (available at brainhq.com) also found it improved their ability to distinguish words spoken in a crowded room.