These auricular muscles helped change the shape of the pinna, or the shell of the ear, funneling sound to the eardrums. Millions of years ago, our ancestors stopped using them, so humans ...

These auricular muscles helped change the shape of the pinna, or the shell of the ear, funneling sound to the eardrums. Millions of years ago, our ancestors stopped using them, so humans ...

As humans grew more proficient ... “There are three large muscles which connect the auricle to the skull and scalp, and are important for ear wiggling,” study first author Andreas Schröer ...

Human ear muscles that scientists long believed were vestigial are actually activated when we are trying to listen hard, a new study has found. Although the auricular muscles changed the shape of ...

The auricular muscles helped change the shape of the shell–or pinna–of the ear and helped humans living millions of years ago listen closely. They are still used by roughly 10 to 20 percent of ...

Humans lost that ability over time, and the muscles that once controlled ear movement are now mostly useless—except for a few people who can still wiggle their ears. But new research shows that ...

Does this increased muscle activity help modern humans hear better? Probably not. "The ear movements that we have been studying are probably too tiny to have any effect on hearing," Hackley said.

Between 10 and 20 per cent of humans can wiggle their ears ... and this data was compared to the movement of the set of ear muscles. Researchers found that activity in the superior auricular ...