Millions of years ago and today, you’ve noticed that if you have pets, ears could swivel around to pick up sound, and today, we may still have that ability.

Millions of years ago, animals, in their effort to survive predators, evolved the ability to reposition their ears in order to better pick up sounds in the environment. Today, we still see our cats and dogs rotating their ears when they hear a sound behind them or next to them, and to them, it’s perfectly normal, but to us, it would be an astounding ability.

Do we still have that ability, and are there vestigial muscles that engage in this in particular individuals? Research suggests these muscles remain, but we only use them during effortful listening. Some call it listening effortfully (LE). A more accurate explanation would be:

“The deliberate allocation of mental resources to overcome obstacles in goal pursuit when carrying out a task, with listening effort applying more specifically when tasks involve listening”

The amount of mental energy needed to hear and make sense of sound is listening effort (LE). Because listening effort is a concept that is still in its infancy, it is difficult for us to fully understand how it affects those with hearing loss. An effective measurement tool remains elusive despite numerous suggestions regarding potential assessment equipment.

The human ear is permanently positioned, but the ancient muscle control system many mammals use today is still present and useful. This relic named the “pinna-orienting system” was recently studied by researchers who looked at the responses of the ear muscles to difficult listening exercises.

Why Ear Wiggling in Humans?

One attempt to define what the system is and how it works is the Framework of Understanding Effortful Listening (FUEL) by Kahneman (1973), whose work on hearing is well-known. He proposed that this system involves a complex interaction between factors such as working memory, attention, motivation, task difficulty, and cognitive capacity.

During challenging listening settings, the superior auricular muscle (SAM) showed considerably more activity, and noises coming from behind the individuals elicited a stronger reaction from the posterior auricular muscle (PAM), according to one study.

Based on these results, it appears that humans have retained some vestige of an evolutionary mechanism that enhanced hearing using fine manipulations. Even though most people can’t regulate their ears with their minds, when faced with loud noises, these muscles do contract involuntarily.

Unconsciously, doing this could be because we are trying to improve sound segregation and concentrate on individual audio streams. When riding in the NYC subway system, I recall my ears reducing the sound as I reacted to its unnerving screeches and squeals. Was there effort on my part? I believe there was.

Do you believe you can wiggle your ears, or have you ever done it? I used to do it in front of the psychology students I taught to show them it was possible. When you wiggle your ears, you use three big muscles that attach the ear to your head and scalp. Muscles in this area become more active when listening with effort. It appears that these muscles are not only contracted in response to sound but may also be involved in an endeavor to focus on the sound, which can be particularly difficult in noisy settings.

Although it is still unclear if these small ear movements help people, studies show that this evolutionary remnant still responds to noise. This is more noticeable in younger people who have normal hearing, but more study is required to determine its prevalence in other age groups and with varied levels of hearing ability. This technique is still used by humans for auditory processing, particularly in “cocktail party” settings where there are multiple voices and the listener has to isolate one without moving their head.

Whether it’s a party trick or useful effort in maintaining attention, being aware of problems in the environment or in increasing our focus on a particular subject can make wiggling useful. Should you be practicing your wiggling? There's no research that shows that actively exercising your ear muscles in this way is something you should be utilizing each day.

If we have a useful skill that can be improved, wouldn't you want to use that? At first, it may seem very difficult, and you might want to practice in front of a mirror. After you put in some effort, you will find that it becomes easier and may make you a better listener. There's no harm in trying, and I haven't seen any research indicating that it is contraindicated in anyone. However, you are the one to decide.