Muscles only believed to be used to wiggle our ears actually enable people to listen more intently, reveals new research. Researchers have found that the auricular muscles, which helped our distant ...

The little muscles that enable people to wiggle their ears unconsciously flex when we're trying to pick one sound out of a din of noise, a new study finds. Think about how cats, dogs and certain ...

When people are trying hard to listen to something, the body seems to do its best to "prick up its ears," even though this ability was lost by our evolutionary ancestors millions of years ago. That's ...

If you hear something interesting, you might prick up your ears. That's a figurative expression, of course. People's ears don't actually move upward. But NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce found that this old ...

In almost every species, ear movement can be a clue that the animal is trying to pay close attention to something. When people are trying hard to listen to something, the body seems to do its best to ...

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The muscles that enable modern humans to wiggle their ears likely had a more important job in our ...