Cook Peter F, Hood Carson, Rouse Andrew, Reichmuth Colleen
New College of Florida, Sarasota, FL, 34243, USA.
Institute of Marine Sciences, Long Marine Laboratory, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, 95060, USA.
Sci Rep. 2025 May 1;15(1):12125. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-95279-1.
Is human beat keeping unique among vertebrates? The only non-human data showing consistent and lagless beat matching to novel stimuli, including music, come from Ronan, a trained sea lion [Cook et al., J. Comp. Psychol., 127(4):412-427]. Ronan's convincing demonstration of adaptive auditory-motoric entrainment at age 3 years showed stronger tempo-phase relationships and higher variability than reported in similar studies of human subjects. This apparent performance mismatch has been used to suggest the mechanisms underlying her beat keeping ability are not isomorphic with those of humans. However, in the twelve years since our original report, Ronan has continued intermittent beat-keeping practice. Comparative arguments should consider her improved performance with increased experience and evaluate her ability against human subjects performing similar rhythmic tasks. Here, we report Ronan's contemporary ability to synchronize head movements with novel metronomic sounds presented at novel tempos. We also provide data for ten humans moving in time to the same stimuli using a comfortable arm motion with similar amplitude. This sea lion's sensorimotor synchronization was precise, consistent, and indistinguishable from or superior to that of typical adults. These findings challenge claims of unique neurobiological adaptations for beat keeping in humans.
人类的节拍跟随在脊椎动物中是独一无二的吗？唯一显示出能与包括音乐在内的新刺激进行一致且无延迟节拍匹配的非人类数据来自罗南，一只经过训练的海狮[库克等人，《比较心理学杂志》，127(4):412 - 427]。罗南在3岁时令人信服地展示了适应性听觉 - 运动同步，其表现出的节奏相位关系比人类受试者的类似研究中所报告的更强，变异性也更高。这种明显的表现差异被用来表明其节拍跟随能力背后的机制与人类的不同构。然而，自我们最初的报告发布后的十二年里，罗南一直在断断续续地进行节拍跟随练习。比较性的论证应该考虑到她随着经验增加而提高的表现，并将她的能力与执行类似节奏任务的人类受试者进行评估。在这里，我们报告了罗南当前将头部运动与以新节奏呈现的新节拍器声音同步的能力。我们还提供了十名人类受试者的数据，他们使用幅度相似的舒适手臂动作随着相同刺激及时移动。这只海狮的感觉运动同步精确、一致，与典型成年人的同步情况难以区分或更优。这些发现挑战了关于人类在节拍跟随方面具有独特神经生物学适应性的说法。
