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 ...

But the auricular muscles might not be so useless after all. By Laura Baisas Published Jan 31, 2025 12:00 AM EST Deposit Photos Get the Popular Science daily ...

Many people have experienced the pain and thumping that accompany a middle ear infection, and they're especially common in children. Learn more about these common infections, their causes, symptoms ...

Vestigial human ear muscles react to sounds even if the external ear does not move. This could be used to build better earing aids. If you hear something interesting, you might prick up your ears.

Evolution has largely deprived us of our ability to swivel our ears, but those vestigial muscles still activate when we listen intently, according to new research. Reading time 3 minutes Tens of ...

Jennifer Wirth is a professional writer and SEO specialist with a focus on health, wellness, parenting and beauty. She holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and is passionate about ...

A cholesteatoma is an abnormal skin growth that can develop in the middle ear. It usually begins as a collection of dead skin cells and develops into a cyst-like pocket behind the eardrum. It can ...

Humans actually have vestigial muscles that activate when listening closely to something, even though people lost the ability to really move their... Your ears can't prick up, but your ear muscles ...

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 ...