A British study has found that “Becoming engrossed in a good book or a crossword really can block the ability to hear,” says a report in the Daily Mail.

According to the report, “Scientists demonstrated that when someone focuses their full attention on something, they can become deaf to normally audible sounds. It happens because visual and hearing senses are trying to share limited brain capacity, they said.”

The phenomenon, known as “inattentional deafness,” was conducted on 100 subjects, by giving them tasks to complete on a computer that involved reading, while tones were played in the background. On the more complicated reading tasks, 8 out of 10 people didn’t recall hearing the tone.

The Mail observed that deafness due to reading “can have serious consequences, and could be the cause of some road accidents.”