Newborn babies possess the ability to anticipate rhythm in music, according to a groundbreaking study that offers fresh insights into fundamental human traits. This research indicates that infants can detect and predict patterns related to rhythm, shedding light on how deeply young brains process musical elements.
Early Responses to Music in the Womb
Dr Roberta Bianco, the first author of the study based at the Italian Institute of Technology in Rome, explained that babies in the womb begin to respond to music by approximately eight or nine months. This response is evidenced by changes in heart rate and body movements. "Previous research has also shown that aspects of musical memory can carry over from the womb to birth," she added, highlighting the continuity of auditory experiences from prenatal to postnatal life.
Distinguishing Rhythm from Melody
However, it was previously unclear how thoroughly different aspects of music were processed by such immature brains. The new study clarifies this by suggesting that newborns can detect and predict patterns relating to rhythm, but not melody. Bianco noted that earlier studies indicated macaque monkeys also exhibit a greater sensitivity to rhythmic patterns than melodic ones. "Rhythm seems to be built on very ancient auditory abilities that we share with other primates, while melody appears to depend on human brain specialisations that are shaped by learning after birth," she said.
This distinction implies that rhythm may be an inherent part of our biological toolkit, whereas melody is something we develop over time. "This may help to explain why melodies vary so much across cultures, whereas rhythm tends to follow more universal patterns," Bianco elaborated, pointing to the evolutionary roots of these auditory skills.
Methodology and Key Findings
Published in the journal Plos Biology, the research involved using electroencephalography (EEG) to collect brain activity data from sleeping newborns who were fitted with earphones. The babies were exposed to original pieces of music composed by Bach, as well as versions where pitches and note timings were shuffled, played in random order.
Bianco described how the team employed computer models to estimate how surprising each note in a piece was, based on the preceding rhythmic or melodic structure of the music. They then analysed EEG signals from 49 newborns to determine if these surprises were reflected in their brain activity.
The results were revealing: surprises in rhythm in the original pieces were indeed mirrored in the brain activity, suggesting that babies can track and predict rhythmic patterns in real music. In contrast, surprises in melody were not reflected in the brain activity. Additionally, newborns' brain activity did not show responses to surprises in rhythm or melody in the shuffled music. "Since the order of pitches and time intervals were randomised within a piece, the brain can't extract regularities to build expectations upon," Bianco explained.
Biological Tuning for Predictions
Bianco emphasised that the findings suggest the human brain is biologically tuned to make predictions when listening to music, particularly concerning rhythm. "Importantly, these predictions go beyond simply anticipating a regular interval: they involve detecting patterns in the music and learning how those patterns unfold over time," she added.
She proposed that such abilities in newborns likely originate from very basic biological and sensory experiences. "Before birth, the foetal environment is dominated by regular rhythms, such as the mother's heartbeat and the repeated motion associated with her walking," Bianco noted, suggesting that these rhythms may provide the brain with an early sense of timing and predictability.
Expert Perspectives and Implications
Dr Giovanni Di Liberto of Trinity College Dublin, who was not involved in the study, praised the research but pointed out that it did not fully account for whether mothers played music to their babies before birth. He acknowledged, however, that the study opens up possibilities for further investigation into this area.
Bianco highlighted that babies can hear music in the womb during the final trimester, adding that while melodies are often distorted, rhythmic structure remains relatively intact. This could explain why rhythm perception is more developed at birth.
Prof Usha Goswami of the University of Cambridge commented that the study's conclusions align with her own work with infants, which suggests that language acquisition begins with speech rhythm. "Individual differences in children's speech processing seem to depend on speech rhythm perception and not pitch structure perception, and this paper also proposes an evolutionary perspective on this," she said, connecting musical rhythm to broader cognitive development.
This research not only deepens our understanding of early auditory processing but also underscores the biological foundations of rhythm as a universal human trait, with potential implications for fields such as child development and education.
