A California Sea Lion (Zalophus californianus) Can Keep the Beat: Motor Entrainment to Rhythmic Auditory Stimuli in a Non Vocal Mimic

Is the ability to entrain motor activity to a rhythmic auditory stimulus, that is "keep a beat," dependent on neural adaptations supporting vocal mimicry? That is the premise of the vocal learning and synchronization hypothesis, recently advanced to explain the basis of this behavior (A. P...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of comparative psychology (1983) 2013-11, Vol.127 (4), p.412-427
Main Authors: Cook, Peter, Rouse, Andrew, Wilson, Margaret, Reichmuth, Colleen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal
Animal behavior
Animal Cognition
Animal communication
Auditory Stimulation
Evolution
Female
Marine mammals
Mimicry (Biology)
Motor ability
Music
Perceptual Motor Processes
Rhythm
Seals (Animal)
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Summary:Is the ability to entrain motor activity to a rhythmic auditory stimulus, that is "keep a beat," dependent on neural adaptations supporting vocal mimicry? That is the premise of the vocal learning and synchronization hypothesis, recently advanced to explain the basis of this behavior (A. Patel, 2006, Musical Rhythm, Linguistic Rhythm, and Human Evolution, Music Perception, 24, 99-104). Prior to the current study, only vocal mimics, including humans, cockatoos, and budgerigars, have been shown to be capable of motoric entrainment. Here we demonstrate that a less vocally flexible animal, a California sea lion (Zalophus californianus), can learn to entrain head bobbing to an auditory rhythm meeting three criteria: a behavioral response that does not reproduce the stimulus; performance transfer to a range of novel tempos; and entrainment to complex, musical stimuli. These findings show that the capacity for entrainment of movement to rhythmic sounds does not depend on a capacity for vocal mimicry, and may be more widespread in the animal kingdom than previously hypothesized.
ISSN:0735-7036
1939-2087
DOI:10.1037/a0032345