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Comment by mmastrac | Hacker News Reader

I trained myself to wiggle one ear as a kid and it's exactly like this. The muscle is much stronger in that ear and there's a weird reflex that when something startles me from behind, the same muscle that makes the ear wiggle triggers. It happens in the untrained ear as well.

Weird phenomenon.

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When I was a lad, I spent some time in front of a mirror trying to teach myself to move my eyebrows independently, like Spock. I eventually succeeded, but in the process I also learned how to move my ears. One downside is that these ear muscles began to involuntarily try to help. For instance, if I am looking down while wearing glasses, my ears contract to grip the glasses so they don't fall off, and after a while these seldom used muscles ache from the effort.

It was only at the age of 50-something that I found out that my ability to move my eyebrows independently is not a general population thing. Amaze! Also FWIW I can wiggle both my ears, and independently too. Is there a way to make money from this ?

Huh, how is it not a general population thing? To raise an eyebrow is a common expression

I think he means alternating raised eyebrow. Raising my left eyebrow is easy but my right requires some significant contortion of my face to achieve.

A quick googling reveals: "About a third of all people can raise one eyebrow: left or right. [..] But the ability to raise both eyebrows separately is much rarer. If you're not among them, that's because you cannot yet control and move the corresponding muscles."

There probably is a way to make money off this, but while doing so I’m thinking you also would be selling some dignity along with it.

Isn't that true of more work than any of us care to admit ?

Now more than ever.

I generally just short my dignity.

who do you find to take the long position opposite you? Your mum?

> you also would be selling some dignity

And there's a very large uncanny valley to cross until you become a respected comedian like Rowan Atkinson ...

Yup I have the same issue with the aching muscles.

Keep at it, those ear muscles will be benching solid steel glasses in no time!

Remember; Pain is weakness leaving the body.

I did the same thing as a teenager, I taught myself to waggle each eyebrow independently, but I never learned to move my ears. I didn't realize that was even a learnable skill.

There was a movie where Jack Black does the wave with his eyebrows.

seek the wave, grasshopper.

I wouldn't say I trained it, but I learned to control it.

I do find myself pricking up my ears to hear better, not always consciously.

FWIW, I can raise my eyebrows individually, flare my nostrils, twitch my nose, and also flex some muscle which pops my ears. Useless human tricks. Except popping my ears; super useful on airplanes.

If you can’t will your ears to pop, here’s the manual way: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valsalva_maneuver

The method involves closing the mouth and pinching the nose shut and trying to "exhale". As the wiki notes further down, this can cause damage to your hearing if you do it too forcefully, so use other methods first.

True, but it's really, really easy to not do it so hard that you blow your eardrums out. Scuba divers do this all the time.

It doesn't work for me, and there is a definitely a voice in my head saying blow harder.

That's a way, and perhaps the most common, but far from the best. In particular, it has to be used preemptively before pressure builds up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ear_clearing

I have a lot of trouble on airplanes. How did you learn to do that?

I don't know? I was really young, and as far as I can recall I just did it one day.

I always thought it was a muscle in my ears, but I remember looking it up, and it's actually farther back like behind your throat or something. I can't do just one ear at a time, it's all or nothing.

Someone linked this wiki page [1] in the thread. This might be it.

> The effectiveness of the "yawning" method can be improved with practice; some people can achieve release or opening by moving their jaw forward or forward and down, rather than straight down as in a classical yawn,[6] and some can do so without moving their jaw at all by activating the tensor tympani muscle, which is heard by the individual as a deep, rumbling sound.

> During swallowing or yawning, several muscles in the pharynx (throat) elevate the soft palate and open the throat. One of these muscles, the tensor veli palatini, also acts to open the Eustachian tube. This is why swallowing or yawning is successful in equalizing middle ear pressure.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valsalva_maneuver

Thanks!

> and also flex some muscle which pops my ears. Useless human tricks.

Also useful when you're diving. I can equalise without holding my nose for the first 10-15m, just by doing the thing with the ears. Doesn't work all the way down tho...

The first 10m is the hardest. The last 10m is a cakewalk.

On the other end, I have the ability to voluntarily move my big toe away from the other toes in the horizontal plane of the foot. Like splaying toes, but just swinging the big toe sideways while the others are at rest.

But, I can only do this on my right foot. It's like I have awareness of a muscle and tendon there that is just absent on the other foot. It was weird to realize this asymmetry at first when I was young.

I can wiggle either ear independently. It greatly annoys my wife and my kids :D

Me too but it annoys no one I know. Best use case is when I need more bass in my IEM's.

I've always been able to wiggle my ears, but just today I learned if I focus I can do one at a time. I'm 33. Thanks for the useless new skill!

>weird reflex that when something startles me from behind

If you have cats and make a noise behind the ears automatically swivel back. I guess we must have something live that in our evolutionary past.

You trained it? I can wiggle each ear very visibly (and both). I hardly ever do but as I remember most people can’t. So i always assumed it was a DNA thing.

Not the person you're replying to, but is also trained myself to do it. I basically touched the area where the muscle is, tried to activate it ... time passes ... and some unconscious process figured it out. Now, as a responsible parent, I use my super power to troll my kids.

It could be both

I too trained it when I was in primary school after seeing a class mate do it.

And like OP I eventually managed to control one ear (right) but not the other, even to this day 40 years later

Same here, same ear

I can twitch my left ear independently from my right. But not the right one independently. I'm sure it means something. Both at the same time is easy.

>> I can wiggle each ear very visibly (and both). I hardly ever do but as I remember most people can’t. So i always assumed it was a DNA thing.

After reading the article I think its a "use it or lose it" thing where the muscles and ability to control them atrophy in our modern environment. We have more competing sounds and external means to "turn up the volume" so we can hear a particular thing.

Someone recently told me that its genetic. Not everyone can control that muscle. I can, I learned it after seeing someone do it by lifting eye brows. I can control it without moving eyebrows now.

There’s a couple actors that do this. Their character gets surprise or concerning news and their ears (and sometimes also their scalp) moves.

I find it very distracting personally.

I can’t control wiggling my ears, but I also have felt my ears perk up when listening to strange sounds. Sometimes accompanied by goosebumps and ASMR.

I can also wiggle both ears and tend to do the same thing. Always just thought I was weird.

Our brain can’t help but use whatever tools it has for heightened awareness!

It's probably the same genetic code that cats use

funny, I do that with my nose when I want to smell something. So I tend to flare my nostrils when I'm smelling for something.

useful for listening to someone through earbuds as well -- moving back the ear creates an air gap

My ears won’t move but I can flip my tongue over. I assumed everyone could, but nope. Bodies are so wonderfully weird and adhoc.

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