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 ...

A study shows that vestigial ear muscles activate when humans listen intently, mirroring how animals move their ears to locate sounds. Using electromyography, researchers found that these 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 ...

Pet owners, you know the look: Your cat hears you pouring the Purina, and suddenly she’s all ears. As she stops in her tracks and turns to face you, her ears swivel straight toward the sound of all ...

Learn more about the auricular muscles, which activate when we wiggle our ears, and apparently, when we listen to several sounds at once. They wiggle, though they don’t do much else. That’s what we’ve ...

In almost every species, ear movement can be a clue that the animal is trying to pay close attention to something. When people are trying hard to listen to something, the body seems to do its best to ...