Ear rumbling

How it works

The tensor tympani is a small muscle in the middle ear. It attaches to the malleus, the first of the three tiny ear bones¹. When it contracts, it pulls the eardrum inward and stiffens it. This dampens loud sounds and reduces the noise of chewing and speaking.

The contraction itself is not silent. The tensed muscle vibrates at about 10 to 70 Hz, and you hear that vibration as a low rumble or roar³. In most people the muscle contracts only as a reflex. Between 43% and 55% of people can also contract it on purpose³. Many of them do not know that other people cannot.

The muscle has been documented as voluntary since 1884¹. The subreddit r/earrumblersassemble has over 100,000 members who compare notes on it². Researchers at the University of Bath and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology used the rumble as a hands-free input signal for wearable devices and detected it with 95% accuracy³.

Try it

1. Sit somewhere quiet.
2. Tense the muscles around your ears as if you were about to yawn, but keep your mouth closed.
3. Listen for a low rumble, like distant thunder or wind over a microphone.
4. If you hear it, try to hold it without clenching your jaw. Isolated contraction is the real trick.

If nothing happens, you are probably in the other half. There is no known way to learn it.

History and culture

Tightly closing the eyes or yawning also triggers the muscle, so most people have heard the rumble without knowing what it was¹. The related thump you hear when yawning is the same muscle working as a reflex.