Bang! You slam the front door shut, and your dog’s ears move toward the unexpected sound. But did you know your ears may be unconsciously doing the same thing, just much more subtly?
These involuntary, nearly imperceptible ear muscle movements are controlled by your vestigial auriculomotor system. Experts believe that the vestigial auriculomotor system is likely a “neural fossil” that’s been part of the human brain for 25 million years.
In short, although you can’t move your ears in the direction of interesting sounds on your own, your vestigial auriculomotor system tries to—and often does!
What Research Shows
In a 2020 study, the participants read a boring text while surprising sounds, such as footsteps, a traffic jam or a crying baby, played. They then listened to a podcast while a second podcast was playing in another direction. Researchers recorded the electrical activity in the ear muscles and used video recording to track any ear movements during both experiments.
After reviewing the data, they determined that “tiny involuntary movements in muscles surrounding the ear closest to the direction of a sound the person is listening to” occurred. Additionally, when participants were trying to hear one podcast and ignore the other, their ears made small movements in the direction of the podcast they preferred.
These results show that human ears do “perk up” when encountering an interesting sound, physically shifting toward what they want to focus on.
The most exciting part? The study’s findings could be used to develop more advanced hearing aids, which could “sense the electrical activity in the ear muscles and amplify sounds the person is trying to focus on, while minimizing other sounds.”
Although today’s hearing aids are not this advanced yet, they do offer other incredible features. Talk to our team to discover how you can benefit from the latest life-changing technology!
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