Julius Bird-Cohen, Sergio Castro, Yuriko Haroen, Dr Yiwen Zheng, Professor Paul Smith, Fawzan Dinnunhan, Huey Tiang Tan and Sophie Wong of the Vestibular and Auditory Research Group based in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology donned earmuffs on Friday to simulate hearing loss - as part of the Silent Leadership Challenge fund raising campaign for the National Foundation for the Deaf.
Getting your point across around the table can be difficult at the best of times but members of a research group in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Otago made it even harder for themselves on Friday.
"We get so many auditory cues that we take for granted and we don't know how important they are until they are removed because we rely on them for all sorts of things – orientation for example."
The Vestibular and Auditory Research group, whose auditory research is focused on tinnitus, donned hearing protectors to simulate deafness and to highlight the challenge of communicating effectively when hearing is impaired.
They were taking part in the national Silent Leadership Challenge fund raising campaign for the National Foundation for the Deaf.
One hour into the day-long experiment, at the conclusion of a lab seminar, they were already finding it more difficult than they had anticipated.
Senior Research Fellow and Principal Investigator Dr Yiwen Zheng said communicating ideas was harder than normal and the extra concentration required was tiring.
“We get so many auditory cues that we take for granted and we don't know how important they are until they are removed because we rely on them for all sorts of things – orientation for example,” Dr Zheng said.
The research group is part of the Eisdell Moore Centre for Research on Hearing and Balance Disorders, which is funded by the Deafness Research Foundation and based at the University of Auckland.