A muscle that we thought served no purpose beyond enabling some people to wiggle their ears is actually active when we are trying hard to listen ...

“The exact reason these became vestigial is difficult to tell, as our ancestors lost this ability about 25 million years ago, ...

The auricular muscles, which enabled our distant ancestors to move their ears for better hearing, activate when people try to ...

“These muscles, particularly the superior auricular muscle, exhibit increased activity during effortful listening tasks. "This suggests that these muscles are engaged not merely as a reflex but ...

“These muscles, particularly the superior auricular muscle, exhibit increased activity during effortful listening tasks. This suggests that these muscles are engaged not merely as a reflex but ...

Scientists call this feature a “neural fossil”. It’s a remnant of a system that once helped our ancestors pinpoint the ...

called the superior auricular muscles, kick into action, likely in an attempt to sharpen our hearing ability. Because the muscle is small, though, it probably has little effect on our hearing ability.

"These muscles, particularly the superior auricular muscle, exhibit increased activity during effortful listening tasks. This suggests that these muscles are engaged not merely as a reflex but ...

“These muscles, particularly the superior auricular muscle, exhibit increased activity during effortful listening tasks. This suggests that these muscles are engaged not merely as a reflex but ...

“These muscles, particularly the superior auricular muscle, exhibit increased activity during effortful listening tasks.” Man trying to listen closely (Brian A Jackson) The study, published in ...

"These muscles, particularly the superior auricular muscle, exhibit increased activity during effortful listening tasks. This suggests that these muscles are engaged not merely as a reflex but ...

In the hardest test, both background clips were made louder. The researchers found that the largest auricular muscle, the superior auricular muscle, became most activated during the difficult test.