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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Oct 15, 2025

Author Spotlight: Investigating Vocal Information Representation in Small Primates and Its Alteration by Psychiatric Disorders Using Noninvasive EEG
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Categorical rhythms in a singing primate.

Chiara De Gregorio1, Daria Valente2, Teresa Raimondi1

  • 1Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.

Current Biology : CB
|October 26, 2021
PubMed
Summary

Musical rhythm categories, like isochrony and 1:2 ratios, found in human music, also appear in coordinated lemur songs. This suggests these rhythmic patterns are not unique to humans among mammals.

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Area of Science:

  • Bioacoustics
  • Evolutionary Musicology
  • Animal Behavior

Background:

  • Musical rhythm's origins are explored by comparing traits across species and identifying statistical universals in human music.
  • Categorical rhythms, with intervals distributed non-uniformly (e.g., small integer ratios like 1:1 and 1:2), are a human musical universal.
  • Investigating rhythmic categories in animals, without assuming a 'beat,' can reveal evolutionary precursors to human musicality.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To test if rhythmic categories and small integer ratios appear in species with coordinated group singing.
  • To determine if these musical universals are exclusive to humans or present in other mammals.

Main Methods:

  • Combined comparative and statistical universals approaches in the study of music evolution.
  • Analyzed recorded songs of a lemur species known for coordinated group singing.
  • Identified rhythmic categories and interval ratios within the lemur vocalizations.

Main Results:

  • The studied lemur species exhibited isochronous (1:1) and 1:2 rhythm categories in their coordinated songs.
  • These rhythmic categories mirror those found in human music.
  • The findings demonstrate that these specific rhythmic structures are not unique to humans within the mammalian class.

Conclusions:

  • Rhythmic categories with small integer ratios are present in non-human mammals, specifically in lemurs with coordinated group singing.
  • This challenges the notion that such musical traits are exclusively human.
  • The study provides evidence for the deep evolutionary roots of specific musical structures in mammals.