But new research shows that these muscles still react when we listen intently, hinting at their primordial function.
These muscles, particularly the superior auricular muscle, exhibit increased activity during effortful listening tasks.
The more effort participants exerted to hear the audiobook, the more the superior auricular muscles contracted.
If you can wiggle your ears, you’re using the same muscles our ancestors used millions of years ago to swivel our ear shells.© From rawpixel.com via Freepik
However, the auricle itself [the ear shell] does contribute to our ability to localize sounds.
What are the practical applications of these almost-useless ear muscles?
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