Can Birds Perceive Rhythmic Patterns? A Review and Experiments on a Songbird and a Parrot Species.

ABSTRACT: While humans can easily entrain their behavior with the beat in music, this ability is rare among animals. Yet, comparative studies in non-human species are needed if we want to understand how and why this ability evolved. Entrainment requires two abilities: (1) recognizing the regularity in the auditory stimulus and (2) the ability to adjust the own motor output to the perceived pattern. It has been suggested that beat perception and entrainment are linked to the ability for vocal learning. The presence of some bird species showing beat induction, and also the existence of vocal learning as well as vocal non-learning bird taxa, make them relevant models for comparative research on rhythm perception and its link to vocal learning. Also, some bird vocalizations show strong regularity in rhy

SUBMITTER: Ten Cate C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4872036 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature