Can you wiggle your ears? About one in five people can. New research shows that even if you can’t, you have ear muscles that automatically kick into action when you are straining to hear sounds. These are the same ear muscles that allow some people to wiggle their ears.
Think about a dog’s response to a sound. Its ears stand up. This action helps the dog funnel the sound into its ears so it can process the sound and figure out where it is coming from. Humans can’t move their ears like a dog can, but they do have similar ear muscles. Humans’ ear muscles are small and weak, so they have little or no effect on our ability to hear sounds.
However, the research findings about our ear muscles have important technology applications. The ability of these muscles to flex automatically when we are straining to hear sounds could be useful in the design of hearing aids. If the hearing aid can detect when the muscles are flexing, it will know when a person is using a lot of effort to hear something. It could automatically turn up the volume or turn down background noise to help the person hear or focus in on what they are trying to hear.
What Do You Think? Are human ear muscles useful? Why or why not?
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