Our ear muscles react to emotions in a fraction of a second—entirely without us noticing. In our recent study led by Prof. Dr. Dr. Daniel J. Strauss, Dr. Farah Corona-Strauss, and doctoral candidate Sophie Bonnaire, we demonstrated that the tiny vestigial muscles around our ears reveal not only where we focus our attention, but also the intensity of our emotional response, whether pleasant or unpleasant.
Although humans can no longer visibly point their ears toward a sound, the underlying neural signal remains: what Darwin believed had been lost has simply grown quieter. This work builds on our 2020 eLife study showing that microscopic ear muscle activity tracks auditory attention, as well as our subsequent findings linking this vestigial motor system to listening effort in hearing aid users.
These insights could pave the way for empathetic AI, such as intelligent earbuds that detect when listening becomes mentally taxing. By introducing the concept of “super-emotional intelligence,” we also address a crucial ethical question: if machines can recognize our emotions better than other humans, how responsibly should they handle that knowledge?
Full press release: Read the full article on the Saarland University website
Publications
- Sophie Bonnaire, Mayur J. Bhamborae, Daniel J. Strauss, Farah I. Corona-Strauss: Unraveling Affective States from the Auriculomotor System. IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing. DOI: 10.1109/taffc.2026.3717435
- Sophie Bonnaire, Farah I. Corona-Strauss, Daniel J. Strauss: The Rise of Super-Emotional Intelligence (Perspective). Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence. DOI: 10.3389/frai.2026.1975692