Anatomy 'Vestigial' human ear-wiggling muscle actually flexes when we're straining to hear. News. By Clarissa Brincat published 31 January 2025 ... To learn more about these small ear muscles, ...

We horsey people think (and talk) about saddle fit a lot — but what about bridle fit? Both are essential items of horse tack ...

Vestigial human ear muscles react to sounds even if the external ear does not move. This could be used to build better earing aids. If you hear something interesting, you might prick up your ears ...

To test whether humans still use auricular muscles — which once helped move our primate ancestors’ ears to funnel sound — scientists attached electrodes to the sides of people’s heads ...

Ancient ear-wiggling muscles kick on when people strain to hear. That auricular activity, described January 30 in Frontiers in Neuroscience, probably doesn’t do much, if anything. But these ...

It’s caused by a spasm in the tiny muscles in your ear. Either your stapedius or your tensor tympani muscle will shake. This causes your eardrum to vibrate. You hear a crackling, ...

I’m pregnant with my second child. During the 20-week anatomy scan, my obstetrician detected my baby has a cleft lip. Does ...

Pain behind the ear and down the neck and shoulder may result from tension or injury in the sternocleidomastoid muscle. Other possible symptoms include headaches, dizziness, and tingling. The ...

A “useless” muscle that allows some people to wiggle their ears actually activates when we strain to hear something. Our ape ancestors lost the ability to pivot their ears when they diverged ...

The auricular muscles appear to activate when humans are trying to listen to competing sounds, not just when wiggling the ears. The findings are detailed in a study published January 31 in the ...

Humans actually have vestigial muscles that activate when listening closely to something, even though people lost the ability to really move their ears about 25 million years ago.

Our auricular muscles are vestigial, remaining part of our bodies while losing their function – moving the pinna, the outer ear – as evolution took its course.“The exact reason these became ...