A new study, from the Researchers at the University of Tokyo, discover rats dance in time to the beat when music is played at 132 beats per minute, the same tempo humans dance in time to the best.
Humans often listen to music that’s at 132 beats per minute when they exercise, particularly runners. It’s the perfect tempo for a great workout.
Some songs that are 132 beats per minute include Foster The People’s “Pumped up Kicks”, LMFAO’s “Sexy and I Know it“, The Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow”, Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull’s “On the Floor“, Mumford and Sons’ “I Will Wait“, and The Proclaimers’ classic song, “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)”.
A camera and a sensor, with tiny wireless accelerometers, strapped to the heads of the 10 rats, were part of the high-tech equipment that allowed the researchers to detect even subtle head movement, (adorable little head bops), while they played Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way”, “Another One Bites the Dust” by Queen, and finally Mozart’s Sonata for “Two Pianos in D Major, K. 448”.
The music was first played at the original 132 bpm tempo, then at a 75% reduced tempo, followed by a 200% increased tempo, and then finally, the songs were played at a 400% tempo increase.
Their observations witnessed the rats instinctively moving best to music at 132 beats per minute, but that they were less interested in the songs when they were slowed down or sped up.
Associate Professor Hirokazu Takahashi said that the “rats displayed innate – that is, without any training or prior exposure to music – beat synchronization most distinctly within 120-140 beats per minute (bpm).”
Dr Takahashi went on to say, “this demonstrates that the animal brain can be useful in elucidating the perceptual mechanisms of music.”
Two humans were also part of the study and had the equipment, (a bigger version), strapped to their heads. Their head movements were analysed when played the same songs at the same tempos as the rats experienced.
It was discovered that both animals experienced difficulty in naturally enjoying the beat when it was played too fast, and the head bopping was shown to decrease in both rats and humans.
The study also found that the naturally preferred tempo, by both humans and the ten rats, was in the 120-140 bpm range. Authors of the study wrote, “beat perception and synchronization within 120 to 140 bpm are common in humans and frequently used in music composition.”
Studies in the past have shown that human brains respond best to music in the same tempo range – and it was originally believed that only humans did this. But over the years we’ve seen non-human animals exhibit these abilities too.
In 2009, a cockatoo called Snowball went viral after his owner, Irina Schulz filmed him bopping his head to music by the Backstreet Boys. Snowball went onto be studied by Scientists at The Neurosciences Institute in San Diego. The Scientists said that his “remarkably diverse spontaneous movements” clearly show that dancing is a brain’s natural response to music that other species experience too.
The aim of the most recent study from the University of Tokyo, published today in Science Advances, was to see if rats, with no previous exposure to music, were one of the species who experienced this as well.
“Music exerts a strong appeal to the brain and has profound effects on emotion and cognition. To utilize music effectively, we need to reveal the neural mechanism underlying this empirical fact.”
“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on innate beat synchronization in animals that was not achieved through training or musical exposure.” said Dr Takahashi.
The Research Scientists originally hypothesized that rats would prefer faster-paced music because their heartbeat and bodies work at a faster pace than humans’.
The Research team now plan to study the effects other musical components, such as harmony and melody, have on human brains and rat brains.
