Children are born programmed to dance

Recent studies reveal that newborns have an innate ability to recognize the rhythm of music, suggesting that our ability to music, or “musicality,” may be biologically programmed.

In 2009, a study published in With people showed that newborns can anticipate a missing beat in drum beats, as evidenced by a clear spike in brain activity.

The study results indicate that the ability to appreciate instrumental music is not only cultural, but also has deep biological roots.

He explains that this discovery faced skepticism Hengjan Honinga researcher at the University of Amsterdam and co-author of the study, wrote in an article in MIT Press. Critics have suggested alternative explanations, such as statistical learning, the process that children use to understand language.

To analyze this possibility, Honing's team conducted a new study in 2015, in which they expanded the research to include adults and monkeys.

results Stadywhich will be published in the February edition of knowledgereinforced the idea of ​​that The perception of rhythm is a distinct mechanismSeparate from statistical learning.

Interestingly, Honing explains, when the same study was conducted on monkeys Macaques In 2018, primates showed no evidence of rhythm processing, Just sensitivity to the regularity of rhythmWhich suggests that the perception of rhythm It evolved specifically in humanswhich supports the hypothesis of gradual vocal motor development.

This hypothesis is detailed in the book published by Honing in 2019 entitled “Evolving Animal Orchestra,” suggests a stronger connection between motor and auditory brain regions in humans than in other primates.

The implications of these studies are important: they point to our ability to perceive and respond to rhythm It is not only cultural, but also biologicallikely to provide a Evolutionary advantage.

there is chance Musical research“Music, once meditative, is gaining respect and scientific maturity, integrating fields such as psychology, neuroscience, biology and genetics,” explains Honing, who leads the Music Cognition Group at the Institute for Logic, Language and Programming at the University of Amsterdam.

This interdisciplinary approach allows for a more realistic and scientifically rigorous exploration of the origins of music — the search for what makes it, Honing says Humans are musical beings.