New research indicates greater similarity between monkeys and humans in the ability to synchronize movements with music
Researchers at the National Autonomous University of Mexico wanted to understand if monkeys can learn to follow a melody while they drum. In a study published in bioRxiv in March 2024, they found that the notion of rhythm it may be more widespread in the animal kingdom than previously thought.
Until then, scientists believed that the ability to synchronize movements with music was limited to humans and some birds, due to the complex vocalizations that these species have.
The team decided to test Macacas (a genus of primates belonging to the vervet family) that had previously been trained to follow the rhythm of a metronome by playing drums.
The main question the researchers wanted to understand was whether they could leverage their ability to follow simpler, more explicit rhythms, made by a metronome, to achieve something more advanced, complex and subjective.
After initial training with the device, the team trained the monkeys to follow tone sequences that mimicked its rhythm, with varying times, frequencies and volumes.
“Once they learned to follow these acoustically complex sounds, we showed them real musical excerpts and found that they could follow them very well, just like humans,” study leader Vani Rajendran tells NewScientist.
The songs played for the monkeys were: “You’re the First, the Last, My Everything” by Barry White, “A New England” by Billy Bragg and “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” by the Backstreet Boys.
The last song was chosen because of a cockatoo called Snowball, who became a rage on the Internet for dancing to this song in 2008.
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The team conducted identical tests with human participants and observed some significant differences in how well the humans and monkeys kept up.
The study understands that, for monkeys, following music is not a natural ability. They need extensive training to master it, unlike humans, who do it intuitively.
Furthermore, monkeys do not necessarily synchronize their movements with those of humans when listening to a specific song. While a person tends to maintain a consistent rhythm across multiple trials, monkeys often interpret the rhythm in different ways during the same song.
“However, the fact that this ability can be acquired through training has implications for our understanding of the evolutionary origins of human musicality and for our knowledge of the brain structures and connections needed to be able to accompany, dance or sing music,” he said . researcher.
Earlier this year, another study based on electrical recordings of the brain found that monkeys appear to have an innate sensitivity to rhythm, even if they have never heard music before, but have little or no sense of melody.
Source: Terra
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