US EditionTwo-Day-Old Babies Show Brain Signs of Rhythm Prediction, Study Finds
Study of 49 newborns shows brains predict rhythmic patterns but not melody, suggesting rhythm is innate while melody develops later, researchers said.
- On February 5, a PLOS Biology paper reported that Roberta Bianco and her team played J.S. Bach to 49 sleeping newborns using EEG to study rhythmic but not melodic prediction.
- Researchers note that for months before birth fetuses experience rhythmic input like the mother's heartbeat and gait, which may prime temporal perception, and authors designed the study to probe whether rhythm reflects an innate capacity or rapid early learning.
- Using EEG caps, the team played 10 original melodies and four shuffled tracks and applied IDyOM plus an automatic cleaning pipeline to estimate each note's surprise.
- The researchers argue the result suggests rhythm as foundational component tied to timing and movement in early development, and they plan a longitudinal study through 12 months on early exposure and developmental outcomes.
- However, the study's limits include possible in‑womb low‑pass filtering of pitch and that musical exposure was not tested, while non‑human primate findings suggest rhythm processing may be phylogenetically ancient.
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11 Articles
Babies Are Born Ready for Rhythm, While Melody Takes Time, Study Suggests
Two-day-old babies can already sense when a musical beat is off, but their brains show little sign of tracking melodies. The post Babies Are Born Ready for Rhythm, While Melody Takes Time, Study Suggests appeared first on StudyFinds.
Two-day-old babies show brain signs of rhythm prediction, study finds
Babies are born with the ability to predict rhythm, according to a study published February 5 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Roberta Bianco from the Italian Institute of Technology, and colleagues.
If we listen to a song, our brain constantly predicts how it could go on. Even the smallest ones have expectations of rhythm – but not of melodyA change of beat, an unexpected chord or a transition from major to minor: such elements add tension to compositions because they break with our expectations. Let's listen to music, our brain constantly predicts how rhythm and melody will be continued with the highest probability. If expectations are not…
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