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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 18, 2026

fMRI Mapping of Brain Activity Associated with the Vocal Production of Consonant and Dissonant Intervals

fMRI Mapping of Brain Activity Associated with the Vocal Production of Consonant and Dissonant Intervals

Published on: May 23, 2017

Music, evolution and language.

Nobuo Masataka¹

¹Japan Science Technology Agency, Saitama, Japan. masataka@pri.kyoto-u.ac.jp

Developmental Science

|December 22, 2006

Summary

Human musical abilities vary from birth, potentially evolving from a primate communication system that was more musical than linguistic, serving as a precursor to both modern music and language.

Area of Science:

Evolutionary biology
Comparative psychology
Bioacoustics

Background:

Human musicality is a complex trait noted by Darwin.
Infant and child research shows innate variability in musical capabilities.
Understanding the evolutionary origins of music is challenging.

Purpose of the Study:

To explore the adaptive purpose of varying human musical capabilities.
To investigate evolutionary links between primate acoustic behavior and human music.
To test Darwin's hypothesis on the evolutionary origins of music and language.

Main Methods:

Comparative analysis of human infant musicality.
Examination of acoustic behavior in nonhuman primates.
Review of evolutionary theories on communication systems.

More Related Videos

Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations

Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations

Published on: July 1, 2015

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jul 18, 2026

fMRI Mapping of Brain Activity Associated with the Vocal Production of Consonant and Dissonant Intervals

fMRI Mapping of Brain Activity Associated with the Vocal Production of Consonant and Dissonant Intervals

Published on: May 23, 2017

Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations

Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations

Published on: July 1, 2015

Main Results:

Evidence suggests human musicality has deep evolutionary roots.
Primate acoustic communication shows parallels with early musical forms.
Variable musical capabilities may be adaptive traits.

Conclusions:

Human music and language may share a common, music-like evolutionary precursor.
Primate communication offers insights into the origins of human musicality.
Darwin's hypothesis on intermediate evolutionary stages is supported.