Our love affair with rhythm begins before we’re ever born, with the sound of our mother’s heartbeat in the womb. What’s more, recent neuroscience findings suggest that rhythm continues to play an important role in the rest of our lives; from walking and talking to even love!
Imagine this common experience: You’re at a party. Everyone’s standing about, chatting, mingling, etc. Then that one song comes on, and everyone rushes to the dance floor at once, like they all had the same thought at the same time! Some songs just make us want to move, even if they’re new to us – but why?
It’s all about rhythm
Rhythm & Your Neurons
Before he became a world-class neuroscientist, Dr. Daniel Levitin was a highly accomplished record producer. In that career he had the pleasure of working with the likes of Carlos Santana, Blue Oyster Cult, Joni Mitchell, and Stevie Wonder, to name a few. These credentials make him an expert on the intersection of the brain and music.
According to Dr. Levitin says that when we hear a rhythm we like, our brains start firing neurons in time with the music. And once those neurons start beating away, it’s not long before our body follows.
In fact, if you are or know an athlete, you may already be familiar with this principle. One example is how runners may listen to music that utilizes a tempo that’s slightly faster than their natural running pace. The runner’s neurons fire at the speed of the music, which pushes their body to the same pace. This can help to supercharge the runner’s performance in a way that is only possible with that rhythmic charge.
Rhythmic Therapy
Even more amazingly, the same dynamic that gets people on the dance floor or helps athletes reach their full potential is also used in the treatment of Parkinson’s.
Simply put, the “steady, clear beat” of music can help Parkinson’s patients overcome the affliction’s characteristic shuffling gait. Jessica Grahn, associate professor at the Brain and Mind Institute at the University of Western Ontario, says that while this kind of music therapy cannot “cure” Parkinson’s, it can greatly improve quality of life.
This is possible thanks to the way our auditory and motor systems are interconnected. Music, and specifically rhythm, simply makes us want to move. What’s more, our ability to move can also have an impact on how we hear music; Grahn has discovered that Parkinson’s patients actually perceive the rhythms differently than people without movement disorders.
But the connection between rhythm and motor function may go deeper still.
John Iversen, research scientist at the Institute for Neural Computation at UC San Diego says that, without activity in the motor system, we couldn’t hear the internal beat of music at all. The “ASAP” (Action Simulation for Auditory Prediction) hypothesis, developed by Iverson and his colleagues, tries to explain how our ears help us move, and how our bodies help us hear.
Rhythm and Language
A sense of rhythm, you may be surprised to learn, is also important for our development and understanding of language. Iversen and his team have found that different languages create different rhythmic preferences in speakers. Furthermore, these preferences impact how the speaker hears rhythm.
To study this more closely, Iversen presented a rhythm to both English and Japanese speakers. The simple rhythm was made up of alternating long and short tones. Since there is no obvious starting point, the sequence can be interpreted as either “short-long,” or vice versa.
Interestingly, English speakers perceived the rhythm as “short-long,” while Japanese speakers heard the opposite. Iversen hypothesizes this is due to the differing rhythmic cues for each language.
Another music-maker-turned-neuroscientist (who worked with Grateful Dead Drummer, Mickey Hart), Nina Kraus, wishes people would spend more time thinking about where rhythm and language meet. Kraus’s research has found that children who have difficulty hearing or creating rhythms also tend to have problems with language processing and reading. In another study, Kraus found that singing or playing an instrument for two years can permanently improve the cognitive abilities of children. The connection between rhythm and cognition runs deep and makes a compelling case for music education.
But Why?
Neuroscientists agree: rhythm holds a clear place of importance in our brains. But why? The truth is, scientists aren’t sure why we evolved this way. But they have theories.
One popular theory is the “vocal learning hypothesis.” The idea here is that our ability to recreate sounds – to hear them and then imitate them – formed an integral connection between the areas of the brain for auditory and motor control.
Another theory suggests our ability to create rhythms comes from our social nature. Whether you’re talking about cooperative building, military formations, or self-expression, rhythm has long played a role in getting large groups to act as one.
“When I was young, I thought pitch was the most important thing in music. And I’m convinced it’s rhythm. Everything is in the timing. Rhythm is really the essence of music,” says the director of the McMaster Institute for Music and The Mind in Hamilton, Ontario, Laurel Trainor. She’s conducted research that suggests when a pair of people move together they are more likely to feel connected – and are more likely to help one another.
“It says you’re working together… you have a common view of the word,” says Trainor.
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