Like humans, Bonobos also tap to beats
17 Feb 2014 6:46 AM IST
A bonobo named Kanzi first surprised researcher Patricia Gray more than a decade ago, when Gray was absent-mindedly tapping on a glass window and the great ape on the other side tapped back.
Startled, Gray decided to speed up the tapping and the Kanzi kept pace, even reclining on his back to tap with his toes when treated to a sprig of green onions for a snack.
‘So I thought we should be taking a look here at temporal dynamics as a way of getting to some very interesting questions,’ said Gray.
Since then, a few other creatures have showed scientists that they can truly synchronize their movements to a musical beat -- among them a cockatoo that is moved by listening to the Backstreet Boys and a sea lion named Ronan whose favorite song turns out to be the Earth, Wind and Fire classic, ‘Boogie Wonderland.’
While animals in circuses and at water parks may appear to dance or sway to pop music blaring from speakers, most of the time they are not truly synching their movements to the beat, researchers told the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting on Saturday.
‘Is it just something that we and a couple of other species do?’ asked Aniruddh Patel, professor in the department of psychology at Tufts University.
‘This is an important question,’ said Patel, whose latest research paper in the journal PLoS Biology is entitled: ‘The evolutionary biology of musical rhythm: was Darwin wrong?’
- Do animals do rhythm? - Charles Darwin believed that all creatures perceived and enjoyed musical cadences, and that rhythm was likely common to all animals, but that its expression depended on how complex they were.
But as scientists look more closely at true beat-keeping, and learn more about the relationship between rhythm and other abilities like language, some believe Darwin may have been mistaken.
‘In terms of cognition, in humans the ability to move to a beat seems to be related to other cognitive capacities,’ Patel said.
Some studies on humans have shown that youths with better verbal skills are also better at keeping a beat.
But many mysteries remain, including whether this ability is innate or can be learned.
Startled, Gray decided to speed up the tapping and the Kanzi kept pace, even reclining on his back to tap with his toes when treated to a sprig of green onions for a snack.
‘So I thought we should be taking a look here at temporal dynamics as a way of getting to some very interesting questions,’ said Gray.
Since then, a few other creatures have showed scientists that they can truly synchronize their movements to a musical beat -- among them a cockatoo that is moved by listening to the Backstreet Boys and a sea lion named Ronan whose favorite song turns out to be the Earth, Wind and Fire classic, ‘Boogie Wonderland.’
While animals in circuses and at water parks may appear to dance or sway to pop music blaring from speakers, most of the time they are not truly synching their movements to the beat, researchers told the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting on Saturday.
‘Is it just something that we and a couple of other species do?’ asked Aniruddh Patel, professor in the department of psychology at Tufts University.
‘This is an important question,’ said Patel, whose latest research paper in the journal PLoS Biology is entitled: ‘The evolutionary biology of musical rhythm: was Darwin wrong?’
- Do animals do rhythm? - Charles Darwin believed that all creatures perceived and enjoyed musical cadences, and that rhythm was likely common to all animals, but that its expression depended on how complex they were.
But as scientists look more closely at true beat-keeping, and learn more about the relationship between rhythm and other abilities like language, some believe Darwin may have been mistaken.
‘In terms of cognition, in humans the ability to move to a beat seems to be related to other cognitive capacities,’ Patel said.
Some studies on humans have shown that youths with better verbal skills are also better at keeping a beat.
But many mysteries remain, including whether this ability is innate or can be learned.
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