The simulation theory of empathy suggests that we use motor processing to empathise, through modelling the actions of others. Similarly, research into embodied music cognition posits that music, particularly musical rhythm, is perceived as a motor stimulus. In both cases, the human Mirror Neuron System (MNS) is put forward as a potential underlying mechanism. If this is the case, some overlap may exist between the ability to empathise with others, and the ability to perceive rhythm in music. The present study investigated this relationship indirectly, through the study of individual differences in Trait Empathy and rhythmic entrainment. Undergraduate students (N = 237) completed a questionnaire battery including the EQ-Short, BFAS and questions about musical and dance experience. A relationship was observed between Agreeableness on the BFAS and the EQ-Short (r = .554). Tests on a controlled sample of these participants (n = 11) found a relationship between Trait Empathy and performance on a rhythmic entrainment task, involving spontaneous movement to a musical stimulus (r τ =-.686). A novel measure of rhythmic entrainment was used, assessing each participant on the time taken to re-establish entrainment following an abrupt change in tempo. The findings suggest that Empathy and rhythmic entrainment may utilise similar brain regions. These regions may also be associated with the MNS, although neuroimaging data would be required to confirm this. Qualitative observations of the participants' responses to the various musical stimuli were also recorded, and may inform future study. Furthermore, the observed relationship between Agreeableness and Trait Empathy may have implications for how these personality constructs are treated in the literature.

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Humans exhibit what appears to be a unique vocal property: octave equivalence whereby adult male voices are, on average, an octave lower in pitch than those of adult females and children. The evolutionary significance of this seems largely to have escaped notice. While sexual selection might explain why male voices are generally lower, it cannot explain why they should be so much lower than what would be expected for body size, nor why the average difference should be exactly one octave. Nor does a generalised dimorphism convey why precisely tuned octaves feature so commonly in human vocal interaction. The octave features strongly in the organisation of music. A consequence of this characteristic of human pitch perception and production is the capacity to share and respond to vocal pitches (and their instrumental equivalents) as if they are ‘the same’ irrespective of the difference in range, a phenomenon known as octave equivalence. We investigate the nature of octave equivalence from an adaptive perspective and propose a hypothesis for its evolution based on the importance of chorusing for social bonding and pitch-matching in inter-generational exchange.

When a sweeping COVID-19 pandemic forced cultural venues, schools, and social hangouts into hibernation in early 2020, music life relocated to the digital world. On social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok, sofas and balconies took center stage for musical performances presented as live-streamed concerts and recorded videos. Amateurs and professional musicians alike embraced digital formats and innovated novel genres of corona-themed music. We will refer to the products of this musical phenomenon collectively as "coronamusic." Adapting a well-known term from cultural musicology (Small, 1999), the diverse practices of listening, playing, dancing, composing, rehearsing, improvising, discussing, exploring, and innovating within this domain will be characterized as "corona-musicking." This study aims to establish the CORONAMUSIC DATABASE–a crowdsourced corpus of links to coronamusic videos and news media reports (https://osf.io/y7z28/). This constitutes the first readily accessible and searchable resource for researchers from all disciplines with an interest in documenting and investigating the musical dynamics underlying the pandemic.