When does the brain first respond to music?
A new study published in eLife explores the early development of musicality in infants, finding that babies as young as three months can recognize melodies. By their first birthday, children begin to exhibit spontaneous physical movements like swaying and clapping in response to music.
The intriguing evolution of musicality in humans, that primal form of artistic expression across cultures – that elevates in celebration, is an empath in grief, a rally cry in protests, a companion in solitude – remains enigmatic to scientists. This phenomenon has now become the subject of study of a group of psychologists, who have discovered that even a three-month old infant can recognise melody, and then by their first birthday, begin to spontaneously dance to it.
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