Nov. 13, 2006 — Music has the power to affect humans physically and emotionally, and now several new studies suggest it can have similar effects on other animals, from fish to monkeys.
For example, non-human primates seem to prefer the relaxing strains of a lullaby over fast dance tunes, according to a forthcoming study in the journal Cognition that looked at the musical preferences of cotton-top tamarinds and marmosets.
Josh McDermott, a researcher in the Perceptual Science Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and colleague Marc Hauser of Harvard University placed speakers near food-baited branches. Whenever the small monkeys plopped themselves on a branch, the researchers would play music out of the speakers.
During various experiments, the scientists played a Russian folk lullaby performed on a flute, a rendition of the Mozart string concerto K458 in B flat major, a lullaby performed by a German singer or a fast techno track by Alec Empire called "Nobody Gets Out Alive."
Repeatedly, the monkeys gravitated towards the branches next to speakers playing the slowest tempo tunes, which were usually the lullabies.
McDermott told Discovery News that the animals' preferences might have something to do with the extent to which the music was arousing.
"Stressful events in the natural environment, such as fights and storms, often are characterized by rapid sequences of acoustic events, and the monkeys and other animals may have evolved an arousal response to fast events because of this," he explained.
While monkeys may find up tempo music unsettling, many people enjoy a good beat, as is evident at any dance club on a weekend night. But other research conducted by McDermott indicates human babies, like the primates, appear to have an innate fondness for lullabies. It could be that fast music may be an acquired, adult taste.
Fish Respond to Mozart
Studies on the growth and physiology of the common carp suggest that music can also be directly linked to animal health.
Sofronios Papoutsoglou, a professor in the Department of Applied Hydrobiology at the Agricultural University of Athens, and his team reared the fish in a recirculating water system under constant darkness or normal light conditions. The researchers then transmitted classical music underwater to some of the carp.
They found that darkness tended to stunt the fish’s growth, but when the carp were exposed to 30 minutes or more of Mozart’s "Eine Kleine Nacht Musik," even the light-limited carp grew at more normal rates.
The researchers also determined that classical music exposure improved liver fatty acid composition in the fish and appeared to reduce brain neurotransmitter levels associated with stressful conditions.
The scientists, who will publish their results in the January 2007 issue of Aquacultural Engineering, suggest music in future could be used to improve "fish welfare" under intensive fish farming practices.
Animal Drummers
Fish can’t drum, but over the past three decades, researchers have discovered that numerous other animals, including palm cockatoos, woodpeckers and kangaroo rats all know how to tap a beat.
University of Cambridge researcher John Bispham says the behavior involves "drumming on hollow objects in their environment in communicative, territorial or mate attraction contexts."
