Why You Can Wiggle Your Ears
The Human Ear Muscles, Usually
Undeveloped in Persons Living in
Modern Western Society, Are in Fact
Functional—Not Useless Vestiges
by Jerry Bergman, PhD
Only a few years ago, the human ear muscles were declared useless by evolutionists. One example is, although a few “people can wiggle their ears voluntarily, these muscles are considered ‘vestigial’ — evolutionary remnants with little practical use today.”[1]
The question asked in the new research at Saarland University in Saarbrücken, Germany, was “Can the ear muscles in humans move the ear slightly to better hear faint sounds?”[2] The research, directed by Andreas Schroeer et al., revealed that electromyographic (EMG) signals from auricular (ear) muscles based on a pinna-orienting system, are an indicator of human spatial auditory focus.[3] Their conclusion was that the ear muscles adjust the pinna (the external part of the ear) attempting to improve sound reception. The research, as detailed by the lead researcher, used
EMG signals from the left and right superior and posterior auricular muscles (SAM, PAM) [see figure] were recorded while participants attended a target podcast in a competing speaker paradigm. Three different conditions, each more difficult and requiring a higher amount of effortful listening, were generated by varying the number and pitch of distractor streams, as well as the signal-to-noise ratio…. Averaged SAM activity, however, was significantly larger in the most difficult condition, which required the largest amount of effort, compared to the easier conditions, but was not affected by stimulus direction.[4]
The main human auricular muscles. (Wikimedia Commons.)
Rather than being called useless, given this research, a more accurate description would be that ear muscles are underdeveloped in Western society. The best example is that certain body muscles remain underdeveloped in many people but are highly developed in persons who are active in certain sports or physical activities. The fact is, “A large proportion of adults in Western cultures are physically inactive, despite several decades of warnings about the potentially negative health consequences of a sedentary lifestyle.”[5]
Furthermore, athletes, especially those engaged in high-impact sports, have significantly higher total bone-mineral density and appendicular muscle mass than controls.[6] These results suggest that certain sport activities may be important for achieving higher appendicular muscle mass, thereby increasing a person’s strength. Since most people in our society are not active in high-impact sports, we would expect that most people would have significantly lower appendicular muscle mass then athletics—and this is what is found.
Likewise, given our society with its focus on speech in comparatively small rooms and electronic means of producing speech in large rooms, average persons would not have developed a significant ability to use these ear muscles. In societies which do not have this advantage (and, because good hearing is critically important in game hunting for meat), we would expect that the ear muscles would be significantly more developed in these areas among hunters. In cultures where faint sounds are important, such as game movement in a dense forest area, we would expect the ability to hear faint sounds would be more developed than in our culture.[7] This is exactly what the scientists found.[8] As far as I am aware, research of ear muscle development was not done in the 20th century. It is not unreasonable to conclude that the hunting lifestyle could be one reason for the superior hearing ability of primitive humans compared to ours today.[9]
Another example is a person suffering from a significant hard-of-hearing problem from a very young age. This person in the past may have developed by practice the ability to use his ear muscles to move the pinna to improve his hearing. With hearing aids and other means, this ability would be less likely to be developed today. But in less-advanced and older societies, we would expect that increased ear muscle development would have occurred.
This view that the ear muscles were more developed in the past was stated by one reviewer: “A mechanism that activates specific muscles in our ears is a leftover from … when our ancestors depended more on their hearing for survival” than we do today.[10] This is why “the auricular muscles of modern humans are small and weak, [but] in our distant ancestors, these muscles likely moved the ears back and forth, thus improving hearing by capturing sound more effectively.”[11]
Summary and Conclusions
We know that the human ear muscles, once declared useless, are activated when straining to listen.[12] SciMex accurately summarized the Saarland University’s finding, which agrees with my conclusion as stated above:
Our distant ancestors used their auricular muscles to move their ears and hear better, but the muscles were thought to have lost their function in modern humans, until now. To test whether we still use these muscles, German scientists attached electrodes to the sides of people’s heads, and asked them to listen closely to an audiobook, either with or without distractions. The scientists found that, the more difficult it was for participants to hear the audiobook, the more the superior auricular muscles activated, as if participants were trying to prick up their ears like a dog or cat. And when sounds came from behind a participant, the posterior auricular muscles contracted as if attempting to point the ears in that direction. If you can wiggle your ears, you can use these muscles to listen closely, funneling sound to the eardrums.[13]
Our ancestors, surviving outdoors, undoubtedly exercised their auricular muscles more than sedentary moderns do. Image by Mauro Cutrona.
The fact is “This instinctive movement [of the ear muscles] isn’t just for show; it helps funnel sound toward the animals’ eardrums, thereby sharpening their ability to pinpoint and process noise.” Our modern society has resulted in many small muscles becoming less necessary, but no anatomists in modern society have claimed that they are vestigial, meaning useless, only underdeveloped. Even in modern Western society many “humans also move their ears in response to sound… When we strain to catch what someone is saying in a noisy room, for example, small muscles in our outer ears, called the superior auricular muscles, kick into action, likely in an attempt to sharpen our hearing ability.”[14]
Although the ear muscles are small, even a minor improvement in our hearing ability may help a person to effectively hear what was said, especially when we are attempting to focus on one specific sound in the din of noise. Nonetheless, the Schroeer research could have practical applications for improving hearing-aid technology.
The Harm of the ‘Useless Organs’ Idea
The useless organ claim problem is “Scientists have a track record of [under]rating organs’ importance before learning their true functions. But the more we learn, the more we realize many of those “useless” parts are actually essential.”[15] This ‘useless organs’ claim has a long history. In the 1890s, anatomist Robert Wiedersheim published a list of 86 human “vestiges,” or body parts that had “lost their original physiological significance.” The list was published in his book.[16] He included body parts that are now known to be “essential anatomy, such as key valves in veins that help direct blood flow; the thymus gland, which makes disease-fighting white blood cells; and the hormone-producing pituitary and pineal glands.”[17] Actually, all of the once-labeled vestigial organs and structures are now known to have a function, often an important function.[18]
References
[1] Brincat, C., “’Vestigial’ human ear-wiggling muscle actually flexes when we’re straining to hear,” Live Science, https://www.livescience.com/health/anatomy/vestigial-human-ear-wiggling-muscle-actually-flexes-when-were-straining-to-hear 31 January 2025.
[2] Brincat, C. 2025.
[3] Schroeer, A., “Electromyographic correlates of effortful listening in the vestigial auriculomotor system,” Frontiers in Neuroscience, Volume 18, https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2024.1462507, 30 January 2025.
[4] Schroeer, 2025.
[5] Seefeldt, V., et al., “Factors affecting levels of physical activity in adults,” Sports Medicine 32(3):143-168, 2 November 2012.
[6] Seefeldt, et al., 2012.
[7] Adams, R., (ed.), Into the Night: Tales of Nocturnal Wildlife Expeditions. University Press of Colorado, Boulder, CO., 2013.
[8] Bruner, F.G., The Hearing of Primitive Peoples, pp. 5-10, 40-50. The Science Press, New York, NY, 1908.
[9] Bruner, F.G., 1908.
[10] Brincat, 2025.
[11] Brincat, 2025.
[12] Saarland University (Germany), “Ear muscle we thought was useless activates when listening hard,” Scimex, https://www.scimex.org/newsfeed/ear-muscle-we-thought-was-useless-activates-when-listening-hard, 31 January 2013.
[13] Saarland University, 2013.
[14] Brincat, 2025.
[15] Lanese, N., “10 body parts that are useless in humans (or maybe not),” Live Science, https://www.livescience.com/useless-human-body-parts, 27 January 2023.
[16] Wiedersheim, R., The Structure of Man: An Index to His Past History. (This is a translation of the original 1887 German edition, Der Bau der Menschen.) The 1895 English edition which is in my library was published by Macmillan & Co., London, UK, and New York, NY.
[17] Lanese, 2023.
[18] Bergman, J., Useless Organs: The Rise and Fall of a Central Claim of Evolution, revised version (332 pp.). Bartlett Publishing, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 2024.
My Book on Vestigial Organs in English and Arabic. My work is now in 16 languages most recently in Turkish and Finnish
Dr. Jerry Bergman has taught biology, genetics, chemistry, biochemistry, anthropology, geology, and microbiology for over 40 years at several colleges and universities including Bowling Green State University, Medical College of Ohio where he was a research associate in experimental pathology, and The University of Toledo. He is a graduate of the Medical College of Ohio, Wayne State University in Detroit, the University of Toledo, and Bowling Green State University. He has over 1,900 publications in 14 languages and 40 books and monographs. His books and textbooks that include chapters that he authored are in over 1,800 college libraries in 27 countries. So far over 80,000 copies of the 60 books and monographs that he has authored or co-authored are in print. For more articles by Dr Bergman, see his Author Profile.