Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more
Ear, ear
IT’S enough to make the ears on a Christmas elf wiggle: the muscles surrounding our outer ear tense in response to unexpected sounds and prick up during attention-focused tasks, according to a study in Psychophysiology. This suggests that people are “unconsciously attempting to orient their ears toward the relevant sounds”.
The authors hypothesise that humans retain a vestigial ear-pointing reflex, although it is too weak to move the ear. Feedback reckons these impulses could be harnessed by an appropriate prosthetic – may…
