Music as a coevolved system for social bonding

Savage, Patrick E.; Loui, Psyche; Tarr, Bronwyn; Schachner, Adena; Glowacki, Luke; Mithen, Steven; Fitch, W. Tecumseh

doi:10.1017/s0140525x20000333

Cited by 287 publications

(331 citation statements)

References 381 publications

(408 reference statements)

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“…Tarr et al (2014) suggest that two mechanisms that support the relationship between music and social bonding are interpersonal synchronization and the release of endorphins. Music has a predictable, rhythmic structure that facilitates interpersonal movement synchrony with others (Savage et al, 2020). The pitch range and scale structure of children's music may also allow for coordinating vocal interactions, supporting group experiences and connectedness (Savage et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Musical Engagement and Parent-Child Attachment in Families With Young Children During the Covid-19 Pandemic

2021

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The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the lives of families in the United States and across the world, impacting parent mental health and stress, and in turn, the parent-child relationship. Music is a common parent-child activity and has been found to positively impact relationships, but little is known about music’s role in parent-child interactions during a pandemic. The current study utilized an online questionnaire to assess the use of music in the home of young children and their parents in the United States and Canada during Covid-19 and its relationship with parents’ affective attachment with their child. Musical activity was high for both parents and children. Parents reported using music for both emotion regulation and to socially connect with their children. Parent-child musical engagement was associated with parent-child attachment, controlling for relevant parent variables including parent distress, efficacy, education, and parent-child engagement in non-musical activities. These results indicate that music may be an effective tool for building and maintaining parent-child relationships during a period of uncertainty and change.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Musical Engagement and Parent-Child Attachment in Families With Young Children During the Covid-19 Pandemic

2021

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“…We show that the GWAS phenotype is also significantly associated with the following: rhythm perception task performance 50 Supplementary Notes and 4,28,98 ). Despite this complexity, beat is a highly frequent feature of many musical systems 1,3,27 . For Western participants, beat perception and production does not depend on musical training or a particular genre of music (note that deficits in beat synchronization are not linked to lack of music exposure 99 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Beat synchronization, and musicality in general, appear to have broad implications for society by supporting pro-social behavior 11,23 and well-being 24 . Many have proposed that beat perception and synchronization evolved in humans to support communication and group cohesion 19,[25][26][27] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Neuroimaging findings have highlighted auditory-motor networks in the brain underlying rhythm perception and production 28 , during which there is precise entrainment of neural oscillatory activity to musical signals, primarily involving motor planning areas and auditory regions of the brain, even during simple passive listening to music 29 . Neural mechanisms of entrainment, prediction, and reward work in concert to coordinate the timing of beat-related expectancies to musical signals during listening, playing, singing, and dance 27 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Genome-wide association study of musical beat synchronization demonstrates high polygenicity

Niarchou

Gustavson

Sathirapongsasuti

et al. 2019

Preprint

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30 †Joint supervision 31 32 2 33Abstract 34 35While timing and rhythm-related phenotypes are heritable, the human genome 36 variations underlying these traits are not yet well-understood. We conducted a genome-37 wide association study to identify common genetic variants associated with a self-38 reported musical rhythm phenotype in 606,825 individuals. Rhythm exhibited a highly 39 polygenic architecture with sixty-eight loci reaching genome-wide significance 40 (p<5x10 -8 ) and SNP-based heritability of 13%-16%. Polygenic scores for rhythm 41 predicted the presence of musician-related keywords in the BioVU electronic health 42 record biobank. Genetic associations with rhythm were enriched for genes expressed in 43 brain tissues. Genetic correlation analyses revealed shared genetic architecture with 44 several traits relevant to cognition, emotion, health, and circadian rhythms, paving the 45 way to a better understanding of the neurobiological pathways of musicality. 46 47 48 49 50We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify common 73 genetic variants associated with a self-reported musical rhythm phenotype, i.e. "Can 74 you clap in time with a musical beat?", collected from 606,825 individuals participating in 75 research with the personal genetics company 23andMe, Inc. We then validated this self-76 reported phenotype in a separate internet-based behavioural study conducted in 724 77 individuals and found that it was significantly correlated with rhythm perception (Online 78 Methods). In the GWAS, a total of 68 independent SNPs surpassed the threshold for 79 genome-wide significance (p<5x10 -08 ). In addition to determining which genes were 80 implicated by these variants, we estimated how much of the total phenotypic variance 81 could be explained by all variation across the genome (i.e., SNP-based heritability). We 82 then further explored this heritability to test the hypothesis that variants associated with 83 rhythm were enriched among genes expressed in brain compared to genes expressed 84 in other tissues (e.g., muscle, adipose, etc.), and furthermore enriched in genes 85 expressed in neurons compared to other brain cell types (e.g., oligodendrocyte, 86 astrocyte). 87Using an independent sample of 67,441 genotyped individuals from the 88 Vanderbilt University Medical Center biobank, BioVU, we tested whether a cumulative 89 sum of the genetic effects for rhythm detected in our GWAS (i.e., rhythm polygenic 90 score), was significantly associated with an indication of musician status in the 91 electronic health record (EHR). Because little is yet known about the relationship of the 92 genomics of rhythm to other traits, we also performed exploratory genetic correlation 93 analysis including 764 complex traits for which a well-powered GWAS has been 94 performed and deposited in LDHub 16 . Finally, we evaluated the contribution to rhythm 95 deviation increase in the rhythm discrimination test). In the remainder of the paper, the 122 "rhythm" trait in our study refers to the self-reported b...

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“…As discussed below, music has been advantageous to our species since it contributes to group bonding [33]. Only a few mammals and birds develop strong, lasting cooperative relationships amongst unrelated adults, as humans.…”

Section: Music and The Human Brainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Let Sing Again. Of Sounds, Songs, and Language in Humans and Birds

Porzio¹,

Speranza²

2020

Preprint

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In million years, under the pressure of natural selection, hominins acquired vocal learning, music, language, and intense cooperation, thanks to the efficacy of music in enhancing sociality. Thus, early in human evolution music became part of human life, a relevant activity, which required sophisticated perceptual and motor skills. It contributed to developing cultures and history, social bonding, and from the beginning of life strengthens the mother-baby relation while within the mother’s womb. Music existed in all known human cultures, although it varies in rhythmic and melodic complexity. It is art made of sounds capable of arousing emotions, evokes memories, engages multiple cognitive functions, and promotes attention, concentration, stimulates the imagination, creativity, and harmony of movement. Music and language share the same complex neural network. Music changes the chemistry of the brain activating the reward and prosocial systems, altruism, and allowing its use in therapy. This review explores "what" is music and illustrates the neural circuits that allow the production of music and language and those that transduce the sounds perceived by the ear, localize and archive them, allowing to recall them. Interestingly, songbirds share many commonalities with human music:, common neural pathways that shape vocal learning, and how they make sounds.

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Music as a coevolved system for social bonding

Cited by 287 publications

References 381 publications

Musical Engagement and Parent-Child Attachment in Families With Young Children During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Musical Engagement and Parent-Child Attachment in Families With Young Children During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Genome-wide association study of musical beat synchronization demonstrates high polygenicity

Let Sing Again. Of Sounds, Songs, and Language in Humans and Birds

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