From cavemen to the modern era, grocery stores to dance floors, and babies to grandparents – music plays an important role in almost every aspect of our lives. It has an amazing ability to connect people of all ages, races, abilities, and cultures. No matter where you’re from, you just can’t help but tap your toes when you hear a catchy song.
Scientists have a word for this phenomenon – it’s called “beat synchrony” or “beat entrainment.” Whether it’s headbanging at a Slayer concert or clapping along to a nursery rhyme, any bodily coordination with an external rhythmic cue is an example of beat synchrony.
As it turns out, beat synchrony is not just a physical ability but a social skill as well. A recent study published in Nature has found that across different tasks, participants who were more synchronized with the beat of rhythmic stimuli were also more likely to synchronize with an individual telling a story. This “social synchrony” is a way to show that you are paying attention to and understanding what the other person is saying.
Beat synchrony may be related to social ability.
Image Source: Smile
In order to test this, participants wore eye-tracking glasses during two experiments: first, while listening to rhythmic stimuli, and second, while they listened to and watched a speaker tell an emotional story. The eye-tracking glasses measured pupil dilation in order to quantify how well the participants synchronized during each phase. The experimenters found that the participants who more strongly synchronized with the rhythmic stimuli were also more “in-tune” in the social situation. This suggests that there are similar mechanisms underpinning beat and social synchrony.
This finding may have massive implications for people who are neurodivergent – such as those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) – as previous research has shown that people with these conditions may struggle with beat synchronization. However, this inability to synchronize as often as their allistic peers may also serve as a benefit for some neurodivergent people. The authors noted that, while synchrony is usually seen as beneficial, it can also cause a sort of “mob mentality” that leads to all sorts of negative outcomes. It’s possible that, while those with ASD or ADHD may have less of a tendency to synchronize, this may coincide with an increase in creativity, individuality, and introspection.
Featured Image Source: Mariia Petrovka
