All about bass for clubbers, even if they can’t hear it

WHEN it comes to filling a dance floor, American singer Meghan Trainor was right. It really is all about the bass.

Neuroscientists have found that people will dance more when DJS play lowfrequency bass notes, even when the sound is so deep that clubbers cannot hear it.

Researchers from Mcmaster University in Canada mocked up a concert, and played levels of bass between 8Hz and 37Hz every 2.5 minutes, while monitoring the crowd’s movement.

People danced 11.8 per cent more when the very low-frequency bass was on. The lowest frequency humans can hear is around 20Hz, but the body can detect lower frequencies as vibrations.

“I’m trained as a drummer, and most of my research career has been focused on the rhythmic aspects of music and how they make us move,” said Daniel Cameron, a neuroscientist from Mcmaster.

“Music is a biological curiosity: it doesn’t help us reproduce, it doesn’t feed us, and it doesn’t shelter us, so why do humans like it and why do they like to move to it?”

Researchers speculate that low-frequency bass creates a neurological connection between the music and the part of the brain that triggers movement – the motor cortex.

Vibrations felt in the body are linked to the brain and ultra-low bass may stimulate this motor system, improving rhythm perception in the body, and perhaps making it easier to dance.

“Very low frequencies may also affect vestibular sensitivity, adding to people’s experience of movement,” added Mr Cameron. The research was published in the journal Current Biology.