Lady Gaga, Queen, Mozart Get Rats Bopping to the Beat

Turns out humans aren’t the only animals who like to bop to a beat. Researchers in Japan played some jams for rats and found that they too like to groove when the song is right.

“Rats displayed innate — that is, without any training or prior exposure to music — beat synchronization most distinctly within 120-140 bpm (beats per minute), to which humans also exhibit the clearest beat synchronization,” explained Hirokazu Takahashi from the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Information Science and Technology.

To induce the rats to shake their booties Takahashi and team piped music into their enclosures, including: Mozart’s K. 448; “Born This Way” by Lady Gaga; “Another One Bites the Dust” by Queen; “Beat It” by Michael Jackson; and “Sugar” by Maroon 5.

Ten rats were fitted with wireless, miniature accelerometers that measured head movements. They listened to one-minute tracks at four different tempos: 75%, 100%, 200% and 400% of the original speed. Twenty human volunteers were observed for comparison. The scientists assumed that the rats, with their faster metabolisms and heartbeats, would prefer faster beats, but it turns out that both species jive best in that sweet spot of 120-140 bpm.

Of course, animals of all kinds can be seen bopping to the beats all over TikTok, but the phenomenon has not been rigorously examined by science, until now. Where will Takahashi take this research?

 “Next, I would like to reveal how other musical properties such as melody and harmony relate to the dynamics of the brain. I am also interested in how, why and what mechanisms of the brain create human cultural fields such as fine art, music, science, technology and religion,” said Takahashi. “I believe that this question is the key to understand how the brain works and develop the next-generation AI (artificial intelligence). Also, as an engineer, I am interested in the use of music for a happy life.”

Watch that rat dance the night away here: youtube.com/watch?v=sUjzbwv1FW0.

Photo credit: Media Storehouse