Abstract
Rhythm production is a critical component of human interaction, not least forming the basis of our musicality. Infants demonstrate a spontaneous motor tempo (SMT), or natural rate of rhythmic movement. Here, we ask whether infant SMT is influenced by the rate of locomotion infants experience when being carried. Ten-month-old, non-walking infants were tested using a free drumming procedure before and after 10 min of being carried by an experimenter walking at a slower (98 BPM) or faster (138 BPM) than average tempo. We find that infant SMT is differentially impacted by carrying experience dependent on the tempo at which they were carried: infants in the slow-walked group exhibited a slower SMT from pre-test to post-test, while infants in the fast-walked group showed a faster SMT from pre-test to post-test. Heart rate data suggest that this effect is not due to a general change in the state of arousal. We argue that being carried during caregiver locomotion is a predominant experience for infants throughout the first years of life, and as a source of regular, vestibular, information, may at least partially form the basis of their sense of rhythm.
Highlights
One of the most captivating aspects of music is that it makes us want to move [1]
The current study aims to test the impact of caregiver locomotion on infant spontaneous motor tempo (SMT), by experimentally manipulating the timing of locomotion that infants experience in a pretest, training, post-test design
Our primary hypothesis was that infant SMT would be influenced by experience of being carried at a novel rate; with infant SMT becoming faster from pre- to post-test if walked at the fast speed of 138 BPM and slower if walked at the slow speed of 98 BPM
Summary
One of the most captivating aspects of music is that it makes us want to move [1]. Movement biases our perception of rhythm, with this bidirectional relationship between auditory rhythms and movement well documented from early in life [2,3,4]. Investigation of the ontogeny of rhythmic movement may offer unique insights into the origins of this bidirectional relationship. While the ability to synchronize one’s movement to music develops slowly across childhood (see [5]), infants from five months of age can produce royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rsos R.
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