The Sunday Post (Newcastle)

Scientists: Rats go Gaga for music

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Rats can move their heads in time to popular and classical music, a study by scientists has discovered.

Researcher­s at Tokyo University fitted rodents with wireless devices that can measure slight head movements and they were then played music by Queen, Lady Gaga and Mozart.

It was found that the rats could keep time by jerking their heads to the beat, similar to humans.

Hirokazu Takahashi, an associate professor at the university, said: “This is the first report on innate beat synchronis­ation in animals that was not achieved through training or musical exposure.”

Understand­ing how music can stimulate the brain may help to uncover how it can be used to trigger emotions.

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