Cats seem to interpret holding your hands cupped and behind your head in the manor they interpret cat ears

For example, were i to put my hands behind my head approximating where they sit on a cats head, and keep my head still and stay making near, but not-quite, eye contact with a cat who isn't busy and shares a friendly relation with me, and rotate one of my cupped hands in a outwards facing direction and then follow a little with the other, more often then not said cat will also move an ear that direction or quickly glance in that direction.

having repeated this silly little experiment with cats I'm on friendly terms with several times, and a few times with random cats I've come across who stopped to watch me or who were open to saying hello or playing for a bit, often, but not always they respond. It seems, anecdotally, that they respond more if I make a point of showing to them physically nonchalant responses to noises in the environment that they do not know the origins of

This came out of watching a older cat that lost most their hearing watching and following along and investigating the ear motions of a younger cat, and also seeing cats be curious when another cat seems to be listening to something

my interpretation is that cats expect something to be indicated by the presence of ear motion and are flexible enough to witness a facsimile and interpret it as possibly meaning the same thing