Research shows, babies respond to rhythm and tempo of the music and it is more interesting than words. Findings, based on studies in babies aged between five months and two years, show the baby may be born with a tendency to move rhythmically in response to music.
The study was conducted by Marcel Zentner, from the University of York’s Department of Psychology, and Tuomas Eerola, from the Finnish Center of Excellence in Interdisciplinary Music Research at the University of Jyvaskyla. The research was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
In this study, babies was exposed to a variety of audio stimuli, including classical music, rhythmic beats and words. Their spontaneous movements was recorded by video and a 3D image capture technology and compared at all the different stimuli. This research also involves a professional ballet dancer in order to analyze the extent to which babies adjust their movements to music.
“Our research shows that rhythm produced babies’ reaction to the baby instead of other forms of music such as melody. We also found that the better a child can synchronize movement with music, the more they smiled broadly. But still have to understand why humans have developed this particular trend,” Zentner said .
One possibility is that it is the target of natural selection for music or it has been developed for several other functions that had just happened to line the processional music, “he said.
