Rat’s the way (aha aha) I like it! Rodents do boogie

NODDING our heads along to a musical beat was thought to be an activity unique to humans – until now.

For scientists have found that rats can also boogie without any training or prior exposure to music.

Researchers from the University of Tokyo fitted ten rats with wireless, miniature accelerometers which could measure the slightest head movement.

They were played one-minute excerpts from five songs, including Born This Way by Lady Gaga, Another One Bites The Dust by Queen, Beat It by Michael Jackson, Sugar by Maroon 5 and Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, K.448.

Analysis, published in the journal Science Advances, revealed the rats moved their head in

‘They have similar rhythm to humans’

time to the music, especially within the 120-140bmp range. Beat It is played at 139bpm, while Queen’s song is played at 110pm.

Scientists did the same experiment on humans and found they jerked their heads to the beat in a similar rhythm to the rats.

And in both the amount of head jerking decreased the more the music was sped up.

While animals also react to hearing noise, or can be trained to respond to music, this isn’t the same as the complex neural and motor processes that work together to enable use to naturally recognise the beat in a song and nod along.

Author Hirokazu Takahashi said: ‘Spontaneous beat synchronisation in rats and other animals has been overlooked thus far, probably because the movements were too small to be identified visually.

‘To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on innate beat synchronization in animals that was not achieved through training or musical exposure.’