Are babies pre-programmed to enjoy dancing?

Research by the University of York has shown that they are!

Their studies covered 120 children aged between five months and two years and they found that babies reacted spontaneously by moving to music and rhythmic beats.

The Scientists also found that where the babies were better at moving in time with the music, the more they tended to smile; although they couldn’t pin down why humans have developed this predisposition.

During the tests, babies were listening to a variety of sounds including classical music, rhythmic beats and speech.  3D motion-capture technology was used to capture their movements and the films were then analysed by professional ballet dancers to see how well the babies matched their movements to music.

They found that the babies moved far more when they heard music compared to when they heard speech and that the speed of their movement was directly related to the tempo of the music.  Marcel Zentner, who led the investigation, said: "Our research suggests that it is the beat rather than other features of the music, such as the melody, that produces the response in infants”.

"It remains to be understood why humans have developed this particular predisposition”.

"One possibility is that it was a target of natural selection for music or that it has evolved for some other function that just happens to be relevant for music processing."

The findings were published in the online edition of the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences journal.

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