this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2025
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I can repressurize my ears without yawning, just by flexing a muscle. Even less useful, I can focus my eyes to different distances without using the finger trick, which comes in handy never.
That's not common? Tbh I never asked around if others can do it I just assumed it's normal.
Are you a chameleon?
Maybe it is? When I was a kid people would have the magic eye things and they would have to focus on a finger, and I didn't have to.
Is it the same muscle as when you do the rumbly ear thing?
Ear rumbling was gonna be my superpower. And I can indeed also use this to some extent to repressurize my ears.
I can rumble, but have never needed to repressurize my ears - they're "leaky".
I thought everyone could do this. That's a super power?!
Not everyone!
Check out the Function->Voluntary Control section here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tensor_tympani_muscle
I tried to find stats on what proportion of people could do it, with claims of "a small number" through to "over half the population".
This study says 55% in the general population. It's also interesting as it's exploring the ability to use this voluntary rumble as a control method for assistive technology.
The what?
Check out the Function->Voluntary Control section here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tensor_tympani_muscle
Next time you yawn, listen for a low rumbling sound. Some people can do that voluntarily. Apparently 55% of the general population, but many people think you could train almost anyone to do it with some practice.
It could come in handy if you took up archery.
That's true.
Tensor tympani is the muscle
I thought everyone could do this and always wondered why people complained about having to pop their ears
I'm assuming you're talking about convergence. When your eyes are physically turning inward to align on a nearby object, that's called convergence. Focusing is what your lenses do, although the technical term is "accommodation".
I'm excellent at controlling convergence, too. I can be looking at my phone screen (like right now) and diverge my eyes just enough to make neighboring letters overlap. Or diverge them so much I see two phone screens entirely. Or anything in between. Same with converging and going cross-eyed.
I can even diverge my eyes slightly further than parallel, making individual stars in the night sky look like two stars. But not by a lot. Looking at me, you'd probably just think was looking in the distance. I can't make my eyes look in different directions like a chameleon.
This does have one handy use: I can see those Magic Eye posters at will, in a split second, even across the room!
you can easily view parallel or cross view images
Actually no, those have never worked for me, idk why
If you are diving the first comes in very practically.
I can do both of those things too, but my ear repressurising abilities aren't that strong, I usually have to either yawn or blow my closed nose.
It'd probably come in handy if you started sports shooting. I do Olympic-style air pistol shooting, and part of what I'm currently training on is focusing my eye on the forward sight, not the target.
Brother 😎