10 Badass Superpowers Everybody Has
9. Your Brain Turns Your Hearing Down
Here's a random one. When you shout, your brain kind of turns down your hearing so you don’t deafen yourself. Go on: try it. Even if you're in a crowded office. It's for science, after all.
According to a 2006 study, it's all down to dedicated brain cells which effectively place a muffle on your ears, dampening the auditory neurons' ability to register new sounds. As soon as you stop bawling your head off, the inhibitor switches off, and those complaints of your distracted colleagues will begin to filter back through.
Boffins poking Q-tips in the ears of crickets called this a "corollary discharge," made possible by communication between motor neurons - involved in generating a loud noise - and sensory neurons, via 'interneurons'. In nature, these corollary discharge interneurons (CDIs) not only protect animals from their own cacophony, but allow them to distinguish sounds they've created from those of possible threats.
Scientists also believe we have these CDIs for other senses, such as touch - hence why we can't tickle ourselves. Go on, try that too. And good luck finding a new job.