The ability to listen to a phone message in one ear while a friend is talking into your other ear - and comprehend what both are saying - is a skill dependent on your genes, say researchers at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. The study of 194 same-sex twins found that as much as 73 percent of the variation in dichotic listening ability was due to genetic differences - comparable to well-known inherited traits such as type 1 diabetes and height.

www.nidcd.nih.gov 

---