There is some evidence that much as we are wired for language, and much as language is part and parcel of our humanity, music may also be coded in our neurobiology. Brain imaging suggests that the way we process musical "grammar" is akin to how we process language - the circuits overlap, the patterns mix together, language and music intertwine.
So our love of music may have something to do with our ear for the prosody - the beat and rhythm and tempo and pitch - of language. Oddly enough, we are not the only animals to enjoy a beat even though we are the only species with true generative language. Snowball the dancing cockatoo's rhythmic dancing to the Backstreet Boys' suggests that although other species may not have the best musical taste, they might share the joy of moving their bodies to a tune. Before Snowball's example emerged, it was considered to be a uniquely human behavior.
Although perhaps not one scientists are all that good at, as the following video illustrates nicely.
Michael D.
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting and eye-opening. Thinking about an animals ability to distinguish between sounds and pitches, it may explain their keen ability to make out a partner from a distance only through the sound and pitch the partner exhibits.
What would be more interesting to understand and see is the animals brain functioning during the exposure to music they enjoy. The exposure of the brain functions can maybe allow scientists to pinpoint and explain how the actions in the region relate to our own.
This is very interesting to me and something I never thought about, but makes a lot of sense! As Michael D mentions above many species use a sound to find various family members even if they are far away. In addition, to this, it may be going along the lines of the above post many species use some type of mating call to pick out their mates. Lastly, I really hope that scientist do experiments where they look at the brains of animals when they are listening to music to see if it relates to the parts of the brain we use when listening to music. This is once again very cool and I really hope they do some further experiments on this topic. This also makes me wonder if my friends parrot is during more than mimicking our dance movements, but actually enjoying the music as well.
ReplyDeleteShelbie Dietmeyer
I found this so funny and interesting, I had always thought that other species would maybe imitate humans with movement, but this really shows how the parrot does in fact follow a beat, maybe even better than the scientists! If the way we process musical grammar is similar to language, it really does show why some people are so gifted in dancing or with musical instruments. I think it also shows another way in which we are similar to other species. I would be interested to see further studies on this subject. Thank you for the blog.
ReplyDeleteSlavisa Danilovic.
It is very interesting to see that animals can recognize rhythm, and harmony in music just as well as humans can. i would like to see how other smart animals such as chimps react to musical instruments.
ReplyDeleteMichael Stewart #959869369
This video was so cute!! I have always wondered whether animals would have some sort of physiological reaction (increased heart rate) to music that they liked. One of my old pets, a ferret, had one favorite song, and whenever I played it, she would fall asleep. With examples such as these, it would be interesting to conduct studies that examine animal’s physiological reaction to music. The potential information gleaned from these studies could be useful with respect to animals in captivity and maintaining comfortable environments. Information such as this was used to help create a more pleasant, less stressful environment for cows that were to be slaughtered. An autistic woman named Temple Grandin noticed that cows in heards tend to move in an almost figure eight-like pattern, and when a herding system like this was instituted before slaughter, the cows were significantly calmer and less anxious.
ReplyDelete-Rehanna K. (901832573)
Pretty funny video. It's interesting to see that parrots and humans would have something like rhythm in common when the two are so different from each other. What I think is most interesting is Snowball's song selection; not even that but HOW she came to decide that she enjoys the Backstreet Boys. Is there a certain type of music that parrots are more inclined to like? What is it about that song that triggers dancing movements in a parrot? It would be interesting to see a study done on parrots such as Snowball with different styles of music and see what ones they respond to and which ones they don't. Also, I wonder if Snowball reacts the same way if the vocals are taken out of the song to see if it's solely the beat or if for some reason she likes the actual singing as well.
ReplyDelete- Mia Summers
Jordan Peldyak
ReplyDeleteThis is really amazing how animals have some bits and pieces of the same traits as us. In that same brain of the bird it is cool to see it combine language and our neurobiology like for music. When I have seen parotts before I always thought that it was just that they had good rote memory which allowed them to memorize different things if they were exposed to them for a period of time.It is really interesting to me to use animals to further are understanding of some of the things we do
This video was amazing. It's incredible they act so much like humans. The other day in class when we were watching the movie on the baby chimps, I was also amazed. The way they suck their thumbs just like we do and how if the baby started running about the mom would run after it and pick it up. Seeing that certain animals are so closely related to us is very eye opening. We are all so much alike.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the parrot had originally been exposed to other music, if it would still prefer backstreet boys? Is that just because that was the first music it was accustomed to? Or perhaps the simple melody of backstreet boys is what is so entertaining. Also, can it adapt different dance moves to different genres. And would different genres and tempos effect its mood. I would love to study this parrot further if I could ever meet it. It quite possibly could clue into the universal and cross-species qualities of music.
ReplyDelete947910034, Elizabeth G. - Human Dev. 311U
ReplyDeleteI love this video in class! I think it is truly amazing how humans appear to have a shared love of music with another species. Since parrots are able to emulate human speech, I wonder if the mutual enjoyment of rhythm is connected to a rudimentary wiring for language/communication birds might have? Additionally, it would be curious to see if we could find this in other animals, particularly primates. If there were positive findings (as in, if we discovered that chimpanzees can also move to a beat) it could mean that such a development is evolutionary.
Really fascinating. And of course, it's a hilarious video.
Zach Monarrez Human Development XC summer
ReplyDeleteThis video is pretty funny and outrageous. It is crazy to think that animals such as parrots enjoy music as well. Its no wonder that parrots imitate speech and copy some of our words. My uncle had this parrot named pancho and whenever my cousin would walk by it would squawk out his name and then chuckle. It would be nice to see the workings of the animals brains when this is all happening.