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Lessons learned in animal acoustic cognition through comparisons with humans. Anim Cogn 2023; 26:97-116. [PMID: 36574158 PMCID: PMC9877085 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-022-01735-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2022] [Revised: 11/21/2022] [Accepted: 12/06/2022] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
Humans are an interesting subject of study in comparative cognition. While humans have a lot of anecdotal and subjective knowledge about their own minds and behaviors, researchers tend not to study humans the way they study other species. Instead, comparisons between humans and other animals tend to be based on either assumptions about human behavior and cognition, or very different testing methods. Here we emphasize the importance of using insider knowledge about humans to form interesting research questions about animal cognition while simultaneously stepping back and treating humans like just another species as if one were an alien researcher. This perspective is extremely helpful to identify what aspects of cognitive processes may be interesting and relevant across the animal kingdom. Here we outline some examples of how this objective human-centric approach has helped us to move forward knowledge in several areas of animal acoustic cognition (rhythm, harmonicity, and vocal units). We describe how this approach works, what kind of benefits we obtain, and how it can be applied to other areas of animal cognition. While an objective human-centric approach is not useful when studying traits that do not occur in humans (e.g., magnetic spatial navigation), it can be extremely helpful when studying traits that are relevant to humans (e.g., communication). Overall, we hope to entice more people working in animal cognition to use a similar approach to maximize the benefits of being part of the animal kingdom while maintaining a detached and scientific perspective on the human species.
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2
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Di Stefano N, Vuust P, Brattico E. Consonance and dissonance perception. A critical review of the historical sources, multidisciplinary findings, and main hypotheses. Phys Life Rev 2022; 43:273-304. [PMID: 36372030 DOI: 10.1016/j.plrev.2022.10.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2022] [Accepted: 10/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
Abstract
Revealed more than two millennia ago by Pythagoras, consonance and dissonance (C/D) are foundational concepts in music theory, perception, and aesthetics. The search for the biological, acoustical, and cultural factors that affect C/D perception has resulted in descriptive accounts inspired by arithmetic, musicological, psychoacoustical or neurobiological frameworks without reaching a consensus. Here, we review the key historical sources and modern multidisciplinary findings on C/D and integrate them into three main hypotheses: the vocal similarity hypothesis (VSH), the psychocultural hypothesis (PH), and the sensorimotor hypothesis (SH). By illustrating the hypotheses-related findings, we highlight their major conceptual, methodological, and terminological shortcomings. Trying to provide a unitary framework for C/D understanding, we put together multidisciplinary research on human and animal vocalizations, which converges to suggest that auditory roughness is associated with distress/danger and, therefore, elicits defensive behavioral reactions and neural responses that indicate aversion. We therefore stress the primacy of vocality and roughness as key factors in the explanation of C/D phenomenon, and we explore the (neuro)biological underpinnings of the attraction-aversion mechanisms that are triggered by C/D stimuli. Based on the reviewed evidence, while the aversive nature of dissonance appears as solidly rooted in the multidisciplinary findings, the attractive nature of consonance remains a somewhat speculative claim that needs further investigation. Finally, we outline future directions for empirical research in C/D, especially regarding cross-modal and cross-cultural approaches.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicola Di Stefano
- Institute for Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC), National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Via San Martino della Battaglia 44, 00185 Rome, Italy.
| | - Peter Vuust
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg (RAMA), 8000 Aarhus, Denmark.
| | - Elvira Brattico
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg (RAMA), 8000 Aarhus, Denmark; Department of Education, Psychology, Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70122 Bari, Italy.
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3
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Birdsong and music. Curr Biol 2022; 32:R1064-R1066. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.09.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
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4
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Roeske TC, Rothenberg D, Gammon DE. Mockingbird Morphing Music: Structured Transitions in a Complex Bird Song. Front Psychol 2021; 12:630115. [PMID: 34017280 PMCID: PMC8129044 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.630115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2020] [Accepted: 03/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The song of the northern mockingbird, Mimus polyglottos, is notable for its extensive length and inclusion of numerous imitations of several common North American bird species. Because of its complexity, it is not widely studied by birdsong scientists. When they do study it, the specific imitations are often noted, and the total number of varying phrases. What is rarely noted is the systematic way the bird changes from one syllable to the next, often with a subtle transition where one sound is gradually transformed into a related sound, revealing an audible and specific compositional mode. It resembles a common strategy in human composing, which can be described as variation of a theme. In this paper, we present our initial attempts to describe the specific compositional rules behind the mockingbird song, focusing on the way the bird transitions from one syllable type to the next. We find that more often than chance, syllables before and after the transition are spectrally related, i.e., transitions are gradual, which we describe as morphing. In our paper, we categorize four common modes of morphing: timbre change, pitch change, squeeze (shortening in time), and stretch (lengthening in time). This is the first time such transition rules in any complex birdsong have been specifically articulated.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tina C Roeske
- Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Max Planck Society, Frankfurt, Germany
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5
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Bilger HT, Vertosick E, Vickers A, Kaczmarek K, Prum RO. Higher-Order Musical Temporal Structure in Bird Song. Front Psychol 2021; 12:629456. [PMID: 33868093 PMCID: PMC8044833 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.629456] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2020] [Accepted: 02/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Bird songs often display musical acoustic features such as tonal pitch selection, rhythmicity, and melodic contouring. We investigated higher-order musical temporal structure in bird song using an experimental method called “music scrambling” with human subjects. Recorded songs from a phylogenetically diverse group of 20 avian taxa were split into constituent elements (“notes” or “syllables”) and recombined in original and random order. Human subjects were asked to evaluate which version sounded more “musical” on a per-species basis. Species identity and stimulus treatment were concealed from subjects, and stimulus presentation order was randomized within and between taxa. Two recordings of human music were included as a control for attentiveness. Participants varied in their assessments of individual species musicality, but overall they were significantly more likely to rate bird songs with original temporal sequence as more musical than those with randomized temporal sequence. We discuss alternative hypotheses for the origins of avian musicality, including honest signaling, perceptual bias, and arbitrary aesthetic coevolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hans T Bilger
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States.,Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas, Austin, TX, United States
| | - Emily Vertosick
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, United States
| | - Andrew Vickers
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, United States
| | - Konrad Kaczmarek
- Department of Music, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States
| | - Richard O Prum
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States
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6
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Doolittle EL. "Hearken to the Hermit-Thrush": A Case Study in Interdisciplinary Listening. Front Psychol 2020; 11:613510. [PMID: 33362674 PMCID: PMC7756056 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.613510] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2020] [Accepted: 11/16/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Birdsong is widely analysed and discussed by people coming from both musical and scientific backgrounds. Both approaches provide valuable insight, but I argue that it is only through combining musical and scientific points of view, as well as perspectives from more tangentially related fields, that we can obtain the best possible understanding of birdsong. In this paper, I discuss how my own training as a musician, and in particular as a composer, affects how I listen to and parse birdsong. I identify nine areas of overlap between human music and birdsong, which may serve as starting points both for musical and scientific analysis, as well as for interdisciplinary analysis as practiced in the developing field of "zoomusicology." Using the hermit thrush (Catharus guttatus) as an example, I discuss how the song of a single species has been described by writers from a variety of disciplines, including music, literature, and the sciences, as well as how we can contextualise these varied perspectives in terms of broader cultural thought trends. I end with discussion of how combining approaches from multiple fields can help us to figure out new questions to ask, can help us identify how our own cultural biases may affect how we hear birdsong, and ultimately can help us develop richer and more nuanced understandings of the songs themselves.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily L Doolittle
- Department of Research and Knowledge Exchange, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow, United Kingdom
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7
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Wagner B, Bowling DL, Hoeschele M. Is consonance attractive to budgerigars? No evidence from a place preference study. Anim Cogn 2020; 23:973-987. [PMID: 32572655 PMCID: PMC7415764 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-020-01404-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2019] [Revised: 05/27/2020] [Accepted: 06/12/2020] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Consonant tone combinations occur naturally in the overtone series of harmonic sounds. These include sounds that many non-human animals produce to communicate. As such, non-human animals may be attracted to consonant intervals, interpreting them, e.g., as a feature of important social stimuli. There is preliminary evidence of attraction to consonance in various bird species in the wild, but few experimental studies with birds. We tested budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus) for attraction to consonant over dissonant intervals in two experiments. In Experiment 1, we tested humans and budgerigars using a place preference paradigm in which individuals could explore an environment with multiple sound sources. Both species were tested with consonant and dissonant versions of a previously studied piano melody, and we recorded time spent with each stimulus as a measure of attraction. Human females spent more time with consonant than dissonant stimuli in this experiment, but human males spent equal time with both consonant and dissonant stimuli. Neither male nor female budgerigars spent more time with either stimulus type. In Experiment 2, we tested budgerigars with more ecologically relevant stimuli comprised of sampled budgerigar vocalizations arranged into consonant or dissonant chords. These stimuli, however, also failed to produce any evidence of preference in budgerigar responses. We discuss these results in the context of ongoing research on the study of consonance as a potential general feature of auditory perception in animals with harmonic vocalizations, with respect to similarities and differences between human and budgerigar vocal behaviour, and future methodological directions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bernhard Wagner
- Acoustics Research Institute, Wohllebengasse 12-14, 1040, Vienna, Austria
| | - Daniel L Bowling
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, 1201 Welch Rd. MSLS P-126, Stanford, CA, 94305-5485, USA
- Department of Cognitive Biology, Althanstrasse 14 (UZA1), 1090, Vienna, Austria
| | - Marisa Hoeschele
- Acoustics Research Institute, Wohllebengasse 12-14, 1040, Vienna, Austria.
- Department of Cognitive Biology, Althanstrasse 14 (UZA1), 1090, Vienna, Austria.
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8
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Hechavarría JC, Jerome Beetz M, García-Rosales F, Kössl M. Bats distress vocalizations carry fast amplitude modulations that could represent an acoustic correlate of roughness. Sci Rep 2020; 10:7332. [PMID: 32355293 PMCID: PMC7192923 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-64323-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2019] [Accepted: 03/04/2020] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Communication sounds are ubiquitous in the animal kingdom, where they play a role in advertising physiological states and/or socio-contextual scenarios. Human screams, for example, are typically uttered in fearful contexts and they have a distinctive feature termed as "roughness", which depicts amplitude fluctuations at rates from 30-150 Hz. In this article, we report that the occurrence of fast acoustic periodicities in harsh sounding vocalizations is not unique to humans. A roughness-like structure is also present in vocalizations emitted by bats (species Carollia perspicillata) in distressful contexts. We report that 47.7% of distress calls produced by bats carry amplitude fluctuations at rates ~1.7 kHz (>10 times faster than temporal modulations found in human screams). In bats, rough-like vocalizations entrain brain potentials and are more effective in accelerating the bats' heart rate than slow amplitude modulated sounds. Our results are consistent with a putative role of fast amplitude modulations (roughness in humans) for grabbing the listeners attention in situations in which the emitter is in distressful, potentially dangerous, contexts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julio C Hechavarría
- Institut für Zellbiologie und Neurowissenschaft, Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt/M., Germany.
| | - M Jerome Beetz
- Institut für Zellbiologie und Neurowissenschaft, Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt/M., Germany
- Zoology II Emmy-Noether Animal Navigation Group, Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | | | - Manfred Kössl
- Institut für Zellbiologie und Neurowissenschaft, Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt/M., Germany
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9
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Bergevin C, Narayan C, Williams J, Mhatre N, Steeves JK, Bernstein JG, Story B. Overtone focusing in biphonic tuvan throat singing. eLife 2020; 9:50476. [PMID: 32048990 PMCID: PMC7064340 DOI: 10.7554/elife.50476] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/24/2019] [Accepted: 01/31/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Khoomei is a unique singing style originating from the republic of Tuva in central Asia. Singers produce two pitches simultaneously: a booming low-frequency rumble alongside a hovering high-pitched whistle-like tone. The biomechanics of this biphonation are not well-understood. Here, we use sound analysis, dynamic magnetic resonance imaging, and vocal tract modeling to demonstrate how biphonation is achieved by modulating vocal tract morphology. Tuvan singers show remarkable control in shaping their vocal tract to narrowly focus the harmonics (or overtones) emanating from their vocal cords. The biphonic sound is a combination of the fundamental pitch and a focused filter state, which is at the higher pitch (1-2 kHz) and formed by merging two formants, thereby greatly enhancing sound-production in a very narrow frequency range. Most importantly, we demonstrate that this biphonation is a phenomenon arising from linear filtering rather than from a nonlinear source.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher Bergevin
- Physics and Astronomy, York University, Toronto, Canada.,Centre for Vision Research, York University, Toronto, Canada.,Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences, Toronto, Canada.,Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, United States
| | - Chandan Narayan
- Languages, Literatures and Linguistics, York University, Toronto, Canada
| | - Joy Williams
- York MRI Facility, York University, Toronto, Canada
| | | | - Jennifer Ke Steeves
- Centre for Vision Research, York University, Toronto, Canada.,Psychology, York University, Toronto, Canada
| | - Joshua Gw Bernstein
- National Military Audiology & Speech Pathology Center, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, United States
| | - Brad Story
- Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, United States
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10
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11
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Abstract
Pitch is a percept of sound that is based in part on fundamental frequency. Although pitch can be defined in a way that is clearly separable from other aspects of musical sounds, such as timbre, the perception of pitch is not a simple topic. Despite this, studying pitch separately from other aspects of sound has led to some interesting conclusions about how humans and other animals process acoustic signals. It turns out that pitch perception in humans is based on an assessment of pitch height, pitch chroma, relative pitch, and grouping principles. How pitch is broken down depends largely on the context. Most, if not all, of these principles appear to also be used by other species, but when and how accurately they are used varies across species and context. Studying how other animals compare to humans in their pitch abilities is partially a reevaluation of what we know about humans by considering ourselves in a biological context.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marisa Hoeschele
- Department of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
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12
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Abstract
Darwin was fascinated by melodic performances of insects, fish, birds, mammals, and men. He considered the ability to produce musical notes without direct use the most mysterious endowment of mankind. Bird song is attributed to sexual selection, but it remains unknown how the expected relationship between melodic performance and phenotypic quality arises. Melodies consist of sequences of notes, and both Pythagoras and music theorists in the Middle Ages found that their tonal frequencies form simple ratios that correspond to small-integer proportions derived from the harmonic series. Harmonics are acoustically predictable, and thus form the basis of the natural, just tuning system in music. Here I analyze the songs of the great tit (Parus major), a bird with a stereotyped song of typically two notes, and test the prediction that the deviations of the intervals from small-integer frequency ratios based on the harmonic series are related to the quality of the singer. I show that the birds with the smallest deviations from small-integer ratios possess the largest melanin-based black ventral tie, a signal that has been demonstrated to indicate social status and dominance, past exposure to parasites, and reproductive potential. The singing of notes with exact frequency relationships requires high levels of motor control and auditory sensory feedback. The finding provides a missing link between melodic precision and phenotypic quality of individuals, which is key for understanding the evolution of vocal melodic expression in animals, and elucidates pathways for the evolution of melodic expression in music.
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13
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Chiandetti C. Commentary: Cats prefer species-appropriate music. Front Psychol 2016; 7:594. [PMID: 27199828 PMCID: PMC4848712 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00594] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2016] [Accepted: 04/11/2016] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
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14
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily Doolittle
- Music Department, Cornish College of the Arts, 1000 Lenora St., Seattle, WA, USA.
| | - Bruno Gingras
- Department of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, Vienna, Austria.
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15
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Abstract
The basis of musical consonance has been debated for centuries without resolution. Three interpretations have been considered: (i) that consonance derives from the mathematical simplicity of small integer ratios; (ii) that consonance derives from the physical absence of interference between harmonic spectra; and (iii) that consonance derives from the advantages of recognizing biological vocalization and human vocalization in particular. Whereas the mathematical and physical explanations are at odds with the evidence that has now accumulated, biology provides a plausible explanation for this central issue in music and audition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel L Bowling
- Department of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria;
| | - Dale Purves
- Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708
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16
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Abstract
Music has been called "the universal language of mankind." Although contemporary theories of music evolution often invoke various musical universals, the existence of such universals has been disputed for decades and has never been empirically demonstrated. Here we combine a music-classification scheme with statistical analyses, including phylogenetic comparative methods, to examine a well-sampled global set of 304 music recordings. Our analyses reveal no absolute universals but strong support for many statistical universals that are consistent across all nine geographic regions sampled. These universals include 18 musical features that are common individually as well as a network of 10 features that are commonly associated with one another. They span not only features related to pitch and rhythm that are often cited as putative universals but also rarely cited domains including performance style and social context. These cross-cultural structural regularities of human music may relate to roles in facilitating group coordination and cohesion, as exemplified by the universal tendency to sing, play percussion instruments, and dance to simple, repetitive music in groups. Our findings highlight the need for scientists studying music evolution to expand the range of musical cultures and musical features under consideration. The statistical universals we identified represent important candidates for future investigation.
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17
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Van Puyvelde M, Loots G, Gillisjans L, Pattyn N, Quintana C. A cross-cultural comparison of tonal synchrony and pitch imitation in the vocal dialogs of Belgian Flemish-speaking and Mexican Spanish-speaking mother-infant dyads. Infant Behav Dev 2015; 40:41-53. [PMID: 26021806 DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2015.03.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2015] [Accepted: 03/25/2015] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
This study reports a cross-cultural comparison of the vocal pitch patterns of 15 Mexican Spanish-speaking and 15 Belgian Flemish-speaking dyads, recorded during 5min of free-play in a laboratory setting. Both cultures have a tradition of dyadic face-to-face interaction but differ in language origins (i.e., Romanic versus Germanic). In total, 374 Mexican and 558 Flemish vocal exchanges were identified, analyzed and compared for their incidence of tonal synchrony (harmonic/pentatonic series), non-tonal synchrony (with/without imitations) and pitch and/or interval imitations. The main findings revealed that dyads in both cultures rely on tonal synchrony using similar pitch ratios and timing patterns. However, there were significant differences in the infants' vocal pitch imitation behavior. Additional video-analyzes on the contingency patterns involved in pitch imitation showed a cross-cultural difference in the maternal selective reinforcement of pitch imitation. The results are interpreted with regard to linguistic, developmental and cultural aspects and the 'musilanguage' model.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martine Van Puyvelde
- Research Group Interpersonal, Discursive and Narrative Studies (IDNS), Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium.
| | - Gerrit Loots
- Research Group Interpersonal, Discursive and Narrative Studies (IDNS), Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium; Universidad Católica Boliviana "San Pablo" La Paz (UCB), Bolivia
| | - Lobcke Gillisjans
- Research Group Interpersonal, Discursive and Narrative Studies (IDNS), Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium
| | - Nathalie Pattyn
- VIPER Research Unit, Royal Military Academy (RMA), Brussels, Belgium; Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium
| | - Carmen Quintana
- Centro de Estudios e Investigaciones en Comportamiento (CEIC), Faculty of Psychology, University of Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Mexico
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18
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Wang T. A hypothesis on the biological origins and social evolution of music and dance. Front Neurosci 2015; 9:30. [PMID: 25741232 PMCID: PMC4332322 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2015.00030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2014] [Accepted: 01/21/2015] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The origins of music and musical emotions is still an enigma, here I propose a comprehensive hypothesis on the origins and evolution of music, dance, and speech from a biological and sociological perspective. I suggest that every pitch interval between neighboring notes in music represents corresponding movement pattern through interpreting the Doppler effect of sound, which not only provides a possible explanation for the transposition invariance of music, but also integrates music and dance into a common form—rhythmic movements. Accordingly, investigating the origins of music poses the question: why do humans appreciate rhythmic movements? I suggest that human appreciation of rhythmic movements and rhythmic events developed from the natural selection of organisms adapting to the internal and external rhythmic environments. The perception and production of, as well as synchronization with external and internal rhythms are so vital for an organism's survival and reproduction, that animals have a rhythm-related reward and emotion (RRRE) system. The RRRE system enables the appreciation of rhythmic movements and events, and is integral to the origination of music, dance and speech. The first type of rewards and emotions (rhythm-related rewards and emotions, RRREs) are evoked by music and dance, and have biological and social functions, which in turn, promote the evolution of music, dance and speech. These functions also evoke a second type of rewards and emotions, which I name society-related rewards and emotions (SRREs). The neural circuits of RRREs and SRREs develop in species formation and personal growth, with congenital and acquired characteristics, respectively, namely music is the combination of nature and culture. This hypothesis provides probable selection pressures and outlines the evolution of music, dance, and speech. The links between the Doppler effect and the RRREs and SRREs can be empirically tested, making the current hypothesis scientifically concrete.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tianyan Wang
- School of Life Science, Tsinghua University Beijing, China ; Ocean Science and Technology Division, Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University Shenzhen, China ; Gene and Cell Engineering Laboratory, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Shenzhen, China
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