Ear wiggling

Ear wiggling is movement of the external ear using the three muscles which are attached to it forward, above and behind. Some mammals such as cows have good control of these muscles, which they use to twitch and orient their ears, but humans usually find this difficult.

Research conducted on humans using a kymograph to measure their ear movements found that only two out of twelve subjects had any voluntary control at the start, but that the others could acquire this by training with an early form of biofeedback.[1][2][3]

Female rats wiggle their ears when they are in heat, to excite male rats and encourage them to mate.[4]

See also

Oculo-auricular phenomenon

References
  1. Bair, J. H. (1901), "Development of voluntary control", Psychological Review, 8 (5): 474–510, doi:10.1037/h0074157
  2. Wegner, Daniel M. (2017), The Illusion of Conscious Will, MIT Press, pp. 29–31, ISBN 9780262534925
  3. Yates, Aubrey J. (2012), Biofeedback and the Modification of Behavior, Springer Science & Business Media, pp. 6–8, ISBN 9781468435542
  4. McIntosh; Barfield; Geyer (1978), "Ultrasonic vocalisations facilitate sexual behaviour of female rats", Nature, 272 (5649): 163–164, doi:10.1038/272163a0, PMID 628443, S2CID 4292188
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