Watch: Rats like music and bop to the beat, says a study

• Scientists in Japan have found that rats can move to the beat of the music.
• This is true even though rats’ bodies don’t move much.
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• The effect was most noticeable in rats when the music had 120–140 beats per minute, the same range as for human brains.

Scientists in Japan have found that rats also move to the beat of songs by stars like Lady Gaga. This means that humans aren’t the only ones who like to nod along to music.

Researchers at the University of Tokyo played Mozart, Queen, and Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” to rats wearing tiny sensors that could pick up even the smallest movements.

They found that the rodents could move in time with the beat, which was thought to be something only people could do.

“Rats’ brains are designed to respond well to music,” said associate professor Hirokazu Takahashi, who was part of the team that did the study. This is true even though rats’ bodies don’t move much.

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“We all believe that music has magical powers, but we don’t know anything about its mechanisms,” he told AFP on Tuesday.

So, “we wanted to find out what kind of sound connections appeal to the brain, without the influence of emotion or memory.”

The “bopping” effect was most noticeable in rats when the music had 120–140 beats per minute, the same range as for humans.

This made the scientists think that it might be a reaction that is common to many different kinds of animals.

“Music moves the body. It goes beyond the auditory system and affects the motor system… the power of sound is that great,” Takahashi said.

The research mostly looked at four different speeds of Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, K. 448.

But the scientists also listened to “Born This Way” and “Another One Bites the Dust” by Queen, which were chosen by Takahashi’s students.

The rats in the study had never heard music before. This is in contrast to other pets, like parrots, which are known for how well they can imitate music and other sounds.

Previous studies mostly used video recordings, not movement sensors, making the animals’ tiny movements harder to detect, Takahashi said.

The study came out last week in the journal Science Advances, which is reviewed by experts in the field.

Takahashi said that, in the future, he wants to study the effects of melody and harmony on the brain instead of just rhythm.

“If music has an emotional effect, it would be really interesting if we could get to the point where we could see it in animals,” he said.

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