A method for testing synchronization to a musical beat in domestic horses (Equus ferus caballus)

Bregman, Micah R.; Iversen, John R.; Lichman, David; Reinhart, Meredith; Patel, Aniruddh D.

doi:10.18061/emr.v7i3-4.3745

Cited by 17 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“… Illustration of a new method for testing if horses synchronize their gait to the beat of music, from [ 61 ] . In this “circular trotting to music” method, a horse trots in circles around a trainer while ambient music with a clear beat is played in the arena.…”

Section: Supporting Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Evolutionary Biology of Musical Rhythm: Was Darwin Wrong?

2014

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Section: Supporting Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Evolutionary Biology of Musical Rhythm: Was Darwin Wrong?

2014

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“…One other possible instance of spontaneous synchronization was reported by Bregman et al (2013). They analyzed the footfalls of a horse trotting to music, and found preliminary evidence for synchronization, although the authors acknowledged that further control conditions would be needed to determine that the result was not coincidental.…”

Section: Positive Evidencementioning

confidence: 98%

“…Compatible with this idea is a proposal by Schachner (2012), in a response to the data from horses reported by Bregman et al (2013). Schachner proposed that animals may be able to beat-match if they are exposed to crucial developmental experiences (mirroring in some important respects the developmental experiences of vocal learners).…”

Section: Why Do Animals Vary In Entrainment?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rhythmic entrainment: Why humans want to, fireflies can’t help it, pet birds try, and sea lions have to be bribed

2016

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Until recently, the literature on rhythmic ability took for granted that only humans are able to synchronize body movements to an external beat-to entrain. This assumption has been undercut by findings of beat-matching in various species of parrots and, more recently, in a sea lion, several species of primates, and possibly horses. This throws open the question of how widespread beat-matching ability is in the animal kingdom. Here we reassess the arguments and evidence for an absence of beat-matching in animals, and conclude that in fact no convincing case against beatmatching in animals has been made. Instead, such evidence as there is suggests that this capacity could be quite widespread. Furthermore, mutual entrainment of oscillations is a general principle of physical systems, both biological and nonbiological, suggesting that entrainment of motor systems by sensory systems may be a default rather than an oddity. The question then becomes, not why a few privileged species are able to beat-match, but why species do not always do sowhy they vary in both spontaneous and learned beatmatching. We propose that when entrainment is not driven by fixed, mandatory connections between input and output (as in the case of, e.g., fireflies entraining to each others' flashes), it depends on voluntary control over, and voluntary or learned coupling of, sensory and motor systems, which can paradoxically lead to apparent failures of entrainment. Among the factors that affect whether an animal will entrain are sufficient control over the motor behavior to be entrained, sufficient perceptual sophistication to extract the entraining beat from the overall sensory environment, and the current cognitive state of the animal, including attention and motivation. The extent of entrainment in the animal kingdom potentially has widespread implications, not only for understanding the roots of human dance, but also for understanding the neural and cognitive architectures of animals.

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“…Horses are generally sensitive to music. The most visible sign of the influence of music on horses is the horse's ability to synchronise their movement to musical rhythm (Bregman et al 2012). According to Carter and Greening (2012), the effect of the music on a horse's behaviour depends on the music genre.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Massage or music meant to be relaxing, result in lowering salivary cortisol concentration in race horses

Kędzierski¹,

Janczarek²,

Stachurska³

et al. 2017

PHK

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Summary: At the beginning of training routine, young race horses are exposed to stressful stimuli. The aim of the study was to evaluate the influence of a relaxing massage which the horses received in the stable, and the influence of music piped into the stable, on the longlasting stress level of the horses. 120 Purebred Arabian horses were studied. They were examined during first racing season, which lasted for six months. At the beginning of the study, the horses were 28 -31 months old. The horses were brought to Słužewiec Horse Race Track (Warsaw, Poland) from their familiar studs and were randomly assigned to music (n = 48), massage (n = 48), or control (n = 24) groups. All horses were regularly trained and competed in official races. Once a month, saliva samples were collected from each horse to determine the cortisol concentration. Both music and massage resulted in significantly lower salivary cortisol concentration compared to control treatment.

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A method for testing synchronization to a musical beat in domestic horses (Equus ferus caballus)

Cited by 17 publications

References 41 publications

The Evolutionary Biology of Musical Rhythm: Was Darwin Wrong?

The Evolutionary Biology of Musical Rhythm: Was Darwin Wrong?

Rhythmic entrainment: Why humans want to, fireflies can’t help it, pet birds try, and sea lions have to be bribed

Massage or music meant to be relaxing, result in lowering salivary cortisol concentration in race horses

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