When people focus on a task, the brain doesn't just listen differently; it listens smarter. A new study from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem shows that the auditory cortex, one of the brain's main sound-processing centers, changes how it operates during active engagement, synchronizing its activity to the rhythm of the task rather than merely reacting to sounds.The research, published in Science Advances, was led by Prof. Israel Nelken from the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences