Ludwig van Beethoven began to lose his hearing at age 28 and was deaf by age 44. While the cause of his hearing loss remains a topic of scientific debate and ongoing revision, one thing is clear: Despite his hearing loss, Beethoven never ceased to compose music, likely because he was able to sense the vibrations of musical instruments and "hear" music through the sense of touch, researchers believe.
- By SHAFAQ ZIA
Now a study by Harvard Medical School researchers could help explain what enabled Beethoven, and other musicians, to develop an exquisitely refined sense of touch after losing their hearing.
The findings, based on experiments in mice and reported Dec. 18 in Cell, offer a tantalizing new clue into how and why the diminishment of one sense augments the other. They also add a surprising new twist in our understanding of how the brain and the body work in synchrony to process multiple sensations at the same time.
