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Letter: 'Useless' ear muscle gives me a sixth sense

Published 26 February 2025

From Gerald Legg, Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex, UK

I can slightly move the “useless” muscle that lets some people wiggle their ears. Of more interest is that I feel the muscle slightly twitch when someone/something approaches outside of my visual field. It feels almost like a sixth sense, but obviously it is linked to my auditory system picking up a sound I don’t appear to actually hear and making my auricular muscles twitch – a bit like a dog “pricking” its ears up. Perhaps it’s not such a useless muscle after all (8 February, p 19).

Issue no. 3532 published 1 March 2025

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