mandyb wrote:What distiguishes the human race from the rest of the animal kingdom?
According to researcher Anir Patel, only people have the capacity to imitate, enjoy and hold a beat.
There is not a single report of an animal being trained to tap, peck or move in synchrony with an auditory beat. There's spontaneous synchronisation with human beings, even in childhood. You tap with it, nod with it and even if you don't, the motor parts of your brain move with it. There's an auditory/motor correlation in human beings not found in any other animal.
So rhythm is a vital part of us....but is it purely an enjoyment thing or is there more to it?
This was a pub chat recently. i read somewhere that appreciation for rhythm is to do with the mother's heartbeat that we all feel in the womb. if I like speedmetal, what does that say about my mother? My friend said 'music' was energy vibrations resonating in the space between atoms. Damn hippy.
Not sure if the animals are responding to rhythm really or are just responding to noises in a way that gets them treats off their owners. Like a dog will sit, but it doesn't really understand the word. They ahev been conditioned. Remember the counting horse? The owner would tell the horse a sum, like 2 plus 2, and the horse would tap four times with its hoof. But they realised that the horse was responding to the quickening pulses and change in mood in the humans watching when it reached 4. Which is actually just as amazing, in a way, and also a bit offtopic...
although plants do love beethoven, accordong to prince Charles.
