Chicks produce consonant, sometimes jazzy, sounds

Area of Science:

• Bioacoustics
• Animal Behavior
• Evolutionary Musicology

Background:

• Animals exhibit preferences for consonant over dissonant sounds, fundamental to musical scales and harmony.
• The relationship between consonance/dissonance and the emotional valence of vocalizations remains largely unexplored beyond human music.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if the fundamental frequency ratios in young chickens' vocalizations correlate with emotional valence.
• To determine if chicks' calls contain musical intervals (consonance) or dissonant intervals.

Main Methods:

• Fundamental frequency extraction from chicken calls (contact, brood, food) associated with positive/negative valence.
• Calculation of frequency ratios (max/min fundamental frequency) and analysis of their probability distributions.
• Computational simulations to explore physiological constraints on phonation.

Main Results:

• The most frequent frequency ratios in all call types corresponded to perfect consonances, similar to musical arpeggios.
• Dissonant ratios were predominantly found in distress calls, indicating a potential link to negative emotional valence.
• Phonetic physiological constraints partially explain observed consonances and dissonances.

Conclusions:

• The study provides evidence for the presence of musical consonance in non-human animal vocalizations, linked to emotional states.
• Findings support the hypothesis that basic elements of human musicality have evolutionary roots in other species.
• The auditory perception and vocal production of chicks demonstrate innate preferences for musical intervals.