Pint of Science: Ringing Ears and Starry Eyes

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From phantom sounds that won’t switch off to technologies that sharpen our vision beyond what seems possible, we will explore the strange ways our brains interact with the world.
Learn why tinnitus might exist at all and how tools built to study distant galaxies are now helping us understand the cells in our eyes and the activity in our brains.

From Black Holes to Eyes to the Human Brain – delving into the mind using adaptive optics
– Dr Penny Lawton (Research Associate at Newcastle University)
In this presentation, I’m going to talk about how adaptive optics – a technique used in astronomy for imaging galaxies and stars through the turbulent atmosphere (and which played a large role in the discovery of the black hole at the centre of the universe) – can also be used down here on earth to image the cells at the back of the eye (the retina) with high precision. From imaging these cells we can find out more about how they work, and how problems in these cells lead to sight loss. Interestingly, this technique also lends itself to being an extremely high precision eye-tracker. This talk will also give some insights into how we can use this to probe activity in the human brain and investigate neurological diseases.

Why is my brain spamming me with sound?
– Will Sedley (Researcher and Consultant Neurologist)
This is the question asked by the one in eight of us, and one in four once we’ve reached old age, experiencing persistent tinnitus. We never hear true silence; the sound is always there unless we’re distracted or other sounds are loud enough to drown it out. I’m one of the lucky majority who aren’t bothered by the sounds, but millions in the UK suffer long-term distress and disability from their tinnitus. In this overview of tinnitus neuroscience, I start with the question of why we have evolved tinnitus; it is too common to occur as simply a design flaw. Is it like pain; even though we don’t like experiencing it, it still helps protect us? Some scientists believe tinnitus helps protect the brain from long-term damage caused by hearing loss, but even if this is the case, surely we can find a more pleasant solution? For people suffering from long-term tinnitus, can we do better then just helping them live better with it, and actually quieten or silence the sound?

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