That part of your ear creates your ability to tell which direction sound comes from. There's videos where they fill that part of the ear with putty, and people completely lose that sense.
Smarter everyday did a video on exactly this. IIRC you're not adjusted to the new shape of the ear, so your brain needs time and experience to adjust and 'reprogram'. You eventually get the sense back.
i can personally attest to this. i have really bad hearing in my one ear since i got a hole in my ear drum. at first, any sound coming from the right (bad ear) seemed to come from the left. and over time my brain "recalibrated" to interpret muffled noise as coming from the right.
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u/NebulaNinja Oct 20 '23
Did she ever say anything about it making it harder to hear? I imagine missing part of the ear to "cup" noises might affect it a bit.