A muscle long thought to be obsolete is actually activated during challenging listening situations.
A muscle long considered 'useless' that allows some people to wiggle their ears is actually activated when we strain to hear something. Our ape ancestors lost the ability to pivot their ears millions of years ago when they diverged from monkeys, but the muscles and brain neurons that support this trait remain in humans today. Many scientists believed these so-called auricular muscles were obsolete, even if they enabled ear wiggling.
But in 2020, researchers at Saarland University in Germany found that they actually become activated in response to hearing sounds. To explore this, the researchers recruited 20 people with typical hearing, aged 22 to 37, and had them take three hearing tests of varying difficulty. Each test involved focusing on a 5-minute audiobook narrated by a female voice while background sounds were introduced. In the easiest test, a quiet podcast hosted by a male voice was played simultaneously. In a medium-difficulty task, a quiet clip of a female voice, similar to the audiobook, was added. The hardest test involved both background clips played at a louder volume. The researchers found that the largest auricular muscle, the superior auricular muscle, became most activated during the difficult test. 'It's pretty amazing to see this nearly forgotten muscle working so hard during effortful listening,' says Strauss. While the team didn't assess if activation of this muscle helped participants focus on the main audiobook, measuring its activity could provide an objective way to evaluate listening effort. This could contribute to developing better hearing aids, which aim to minimize listening strain, says Strauss. However, larger studies involving people of different ages and with various hearing abilities are needed to confirm these findings. The team also didn't consider eye movements or facial expressions, which can influence auricular muscle activity. Strauss hopes to address these points in future research. 'More studies are needed to gain a deeper understanding of this 'neural fossil' in our brain and how to make use of it,' he says
Auricular Muscles Hearing Brain Function Listening Effort Hearing Aids
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