Sometimes science comes up with associations that initially sound surprising, but which make more sense the more you think about them: like a link between having a lower IQ and also having difficulty hearing a conversation in a noisy environment.

Previous studies have identified that neurodiverse people can have more difficulty hearing what's being said in a noisy room, and researchers led by a team from the University of Washington wanted to gather more data on the topic.

The researchers recruited 12 participants with autism and 10 with fetal alcohol syndrome , as both conditions are linked with difficulty hearing in noisy environments and include people with a range of IQ levels. The control group included 27 neurotypical people, matching the age and sex of the other participant

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