Distinct developmental trajectories shape human sensitivity to rhythms in the environment

Rhythm is an omnipresent feature of our environment. Repetitive temporal patterns in sound and vision influence how we pay attention to the world, move, and speak. Grasping these regularities is critical for development. Humans can track surrounding rhythms explicitly-like dancing to the beat of music-or implicitly, when rhythms guide perception and behavior without deliberate attention. Whether these abilities follow different developmental trajectories remains unknown. Here, we tested 98 children aged 7-13 using a novel gamified task measuring implicit rhythm processing, alongside assessments of explicit rhythmic abilities and cognition. We show that explicit and implicit rhythmic abilities follow distinct developmental trajectories: whereas explicit rhythmic abilities improve with age and formal musical experience, implicit rhythmic sensitivity remains remarkably stable throughout childhood. Implicit and explicit rhythm processing also showed distinct associations with executive functioning. In addition, the relation between these two forms of rhythm processing appeared to depend on cognitive flexibility. These findings provide new insights into the development of rhythmic abilities and may inform future work on neurodevelopmental disorders and rhythm-based rehabilitation.