1/f laws found in non-human music

Area of Science:

• Physics
• Neuroscience
• Evolutionary Biology
• Bioacoustics

Background:

• Brains may evolve to encode physical world regularities, such as gravity and motion.
• Fractal structures, characterized by power-law correlations or 1/f^β spectral distributions, are common in nature and artifacts.
• Human music exhibits 1/f^β power laws, suggesting evolved recognition of natural patterns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if animal vocalizations also follow 1/f^β power-law distributions.
• To determine the prevalence of these power laws across diverse animal species.
• To explore the evolutionary implications of sensitivity to fractal patterns in sensory processing.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of spectral density and power-law correlations in animal vocalizations.
• Examination of vocalizations from a wide range of species, including songbirds, whales, and wolves.
• Statistical analysis to identify 1/f^β distributions.

Main Results:

• 1/f^β power-law distributions were discovered in the vocalizations of all 17 diverse species examined.
• This fractal pattern was found to be prevalent across a wide range of animal sounds.
• The findings indicate a widespread occurrence of these physical laws in the animal kingdom.

Conclusions:

• Animal vocalizations share fractal properties with human music and natural phenomena.
• The brains of various species may have evolved a sensitivity to 1/f^β power laws.
• This sensitivity likely aids in processing natural world sensory features and recognizing patterns in vocal communication.