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Comment by praptak | Hacker News Reader

I only discovered how to move my ears when I was like 8 years old. This suggests the nerves are there, just very non-obvious to control.

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I think I learned how to move my ears once I started wearing glasses -- at some point I was able to actively move them up and down my nose a little through ear movement.

What does it feel like? Smiling without the smile?

A bit hard to describe (how would you describe what moving your arm feels like?)

I'd say a bit like raising my eyebrows, but the "tension" is behind the ears.

Okay if I raise my eyebrows my ears come along for the ride.. but I can move my eyebrows without the ears if I think of it as moving my forehead.. so to isolate the ears only I need to lock the eyebrows at max up or down and try and wiggle them and see how it feels..

Yeah, maybe start with trying to move your forehead and the whole scalp.

> I'd say a bit like raising my eyebrows, but the "tension" is behind the ears.

For me the tension is pretty far back, basically halfway to the back of my head on either side, and covers a vaguely oblong patch that is about 1.5 square inches.

Do you have (loose) spectacles? If yes, you can try to make the spectacles move back and forth (moving back requires flexing the muscle, spectacles moved front is the "natural" position). If not, maybe take a friend's pair? Lol just kidding, just use sunglasses.

Honestly it's not some major movement and I only have 1 degree of motion properly under control - I'm sure there's more that I can't. It's not a very significant thing irl.

This is the first time in my 46 years that I've had any success voluntarily controlling ear muscles. Amazing! Every few minutes I'm able to wiggle my glasses very slightly, and then lost it completely after a few wiggles!

Yeah these muscles get tired pretty quickly. Congratulations!

I'm happy I could help! ^^

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