What makes us musical animals

Datum

11.10.2016

Zeit

16:40 - 18:10

Sprecher

Henkjan Honing

Zugehörigkeit

University of Amsterdam

Sprache

en

Hauptthema

Gesellschaft, Philos., Erzieh.

Andere Themen

Gesellschaft, Philos., Erzieh.

Beschreibung

Over the years it has become clear that all humans share a predisposition for music, just like we all have a capacity for language. This view is supported by a growing body of research ranging from the pioneering work of developmental psychologists Sandra Trehub and Laurel Trainor to that of neuroscientists such as Isabelle Peretz and Robert Zatorre. These studies also indicate that our capacity for music has an intimate relationship with our cognition and underlying biology, which is particularly clear when the focus is on perception rather than production. Until relatively recently most scholars were wary of the notion that music cognition could have a biological basis. Instead music was viewed as a cultural product with no evolutionary history and no biological constraints on its manifestation. Such a view is indicative of a Western perspective on music, in which music is viewed as the preserve of professional musicians who have honed their skills through years of practise. Obviously, such notions do not fit the presence of music in all cultures and time periods, let alone other species. Rather than being something special or reserved for highly-trained individuals, there is increasing evidence that all humans share a predisposition for music in the form of musicality – defined as a spontaneous developing set of traits based on and constraint by our cognitive abilities and their underlying biology [1]. To recognise a melody and perceive the beat of music are trivial skills for most humans, but at the same time fundamental features of our musicality. Even infants and young children are already sensitive to such features, which are common across cultures. Though we are learning more and more about our own musical skills, the cognitive and biological mechanisms underlying musicality remain unclear. In this presentation I aim to decompose the constituent components of musicality (using a ‘divide and conquer’ strategy) by focussing on one feature that has attracted considerable discussion in the recent literature: beat induction. I will discuss our recent findings in humans (adults and newborn infants; [2,3]), nonhuman primates [4,5], and avian species [6,7] using a comparative approach. 1. Honing H, ten Cate C, Peretz I, Trehub SE (2015) Without it no music: cognition, biology and evolution of musicality. Philos Trans R Soc London B Biol Sci 370: 20140088. doi:10.1098/rstb.2014.0088. 2. Winkler I, Háden GP, Ladinig O, Sziller I, Honing H (2009) Newborn infants detect the beat in music. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106: 2468–2471. doi:10.1073/pnas.0809035106. 3. Honing H (2012) Without it no music: beat induction as a fundamental musical trait. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1252: 85–91. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.06402.x. 4. Merchant H, Honing H (2014) Are non-human primates capable of rhythmic entrainment? Evidence for the gradual audiomotor evolution hypothesis. Front Audit Cogn Neurosci 7: 1–8. doi:10.3389/fnins.2013.00274. 5. Honing H, Merchant H, Háden GP, Prado L, Bartolo R (2012) Rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) detect rhythmic groups in music, but not the beat. PLoS One 7: 1–10. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0051369. 6. van der Aa J, Honing H, ten Cate C (2015) The perception of regularity in an isochronous stimulus in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) and humans. Behav Processes 115: 37–45. doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2015.02.018. 7. ten Cate C, Spierings M, Hubert J, Honing H (2016) Can birds perceive rhythmic patterns? A review and experiments on a songbird and a parrot species. Front Psychol 7: 1–14. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00730.

Links

• Series hompage

Letztmalig verändert: 09.10.2016, 19:15:35