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>>our ears already can move a slight bit by its own muscles. Not everyone can do that though. My wife can easily twitch her ears by just thinking about it, I c
by gambiting 5y ago
>>our ears already can move a slight bit by its own muscles.
Not everyone can do that though. My wife can easily twitch her ears by just thinking about it, I cannot no matter how hard I try - it's just like there is no nerve link to whatever is there.
- praptak 5y agoI 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.
- totetsu 5y agoWhat does it feel like? Smiling without the smile?
- praptak 5y agoA 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.
- totetsu 5y agoOkay 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..
- praptak 5y agoYeah, maybe start with trying to move your forehead and the whole scalp.
- webmaven 5y ago> 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.
- user_7832 5y agoDo 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.
- zellyn 5y agoThis 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!
- rstarast 5y agoI 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.
- goodpoint 5y agoThe nerves are there. You "just" need to discover them.
- gambiting 5y agoI mean, I've been trying for 30 years of my life and haven't been able to, so yeah, no idea how you'd go about it.
- themeiguoren 5y agoStick you fingers in the space between your ear and your head, and you can feel the muscles moving there. That should really help with building a mind-muscle connection since it’s hard to get feedback otherwise.
- deredede 5y agoI spent hours in front of a mirror a decade ago until I was able to move my left ear. Lots of trying to move things that either did nothing or made me clench my jaw or close my eyes, before eventually "feeling" my ear, and then a whole lot more of that before seing it move. It was exhausting, and even though I have a faint consciousness of the corresponding muscles in my right ear --- I have no desire to spend that time and energy again.
- robbedpeter 5y agoIt makes sense for actors to do that type of thing, or maybe martial artists seeking to discipline every part of their body, but the time needed is too high for what's mostly a party trick for regular people. Then again, maybe it gets easier with other muscles as you practice and master more things - could it help overall coordination, maybe improve typing speed or balance?
- goodpoint 5y agoWe instinctively "try" and discover our motor control as babies, depending on how much feedback we get the movement. Unsurprisingly, hands are very popular. Other things like proprioception of our backs and general posture can go unnoticed even as adults. I.e. it takes careful focus and training to [re]learn how and what to move.
- amelius 5y agoProbably similar to how tongue rolling is genenic.