Baby Born to Dance

This is a new result from the research. Baby was born to dance, really? Some researchers have found that infants react to the rhythm and tempo of music and it has been stronger than words. The research result, based on studies in infants aged between five months and two years, show the baby may be born with a tendency to move in rhythm as a reaction to music.

The study was conducted by Marcel Zentner, of 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 results were published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Babies listen to various audio stimulation, including classical music, rhythmic beats and lyrics. Their spontaneous movements were recorded by video and 3D image capture technology and compared to all the different stimuli. Professional ballet dancers are also used to analyze the extent to which infants adjust their movements to music.

Zentner said, “Our study shows that the rhythm and not other forms of music, like melody, which produces a reaction in infants. We also found that the better the child can coordinate their movements with the music, the more they smiled broadly. But still have to understand why humans have been developing this particular trend. One possibility is that it is the target of natural selection for music or it has evolved for some other function which just happened to line with the procession of music, “he said.