Why does music make us dance?

Brains On! Science podcast for kids

This Brains On! episode explores why music makes people dance, diving into the science behind rhythm, brain activity, and human movement. Ho

Key takeaways

• Rhythmic patterns in music trigger 'rhythm entrainment,' syncing brain activity with movement.

Main topics

• The neuroscience of rhythm and movement

Notable quotes

It's almost like dancing is talking for the body and talking is dancing for the mouth.

Conclusion

Music's ability to make us dance stems from deep evolutionary roots in rhythm

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:31) Lemonada Come on, join us in solving mysteries and having a lot of fun by listening to Snoop and Sniffy on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 7 (0:45) Brains on Universe. You're listening to Brains on where we're serious about being curious. Speaker 6 (0:56) Today's episode is all about why some sounds make us move. Like, you hear that song under my voice? Speaker 7 (1:03) The Brains on theme song? Speaker 6 (1:04) Yeah, let's listen for a sec. Speaker 7 (1:13) It's catchy. Makes me want to bob my head. Exactly. Speaker 6 (1:17) How does music do that? How does it go from sounds we hear to movement in our bodies? I Speaker 7 (1:24) don't know, but I do know a good beat can get a crowd moving to the same rhythm. Speaker 6 (1:29) Yeah, music is powerful stuff. And maybe one reason it's so powerful is that it's been with us for a long time. Speaker 5 (1:37) Before we as humans even had language accessible to us, we had our bodies to move and we had rhythms that we created with our bodies and sticks and stones and other things that were around us that became music. That's Speaker 7 (1:52) Joy Abasso. She studies dance in the brain. Speaker 6 (1:56) We'll hear more from her about why we dance coming up. So keep listening. Speaker 2 (2:10) Hey, Sandon here. It's that time of year where lots of kids are going back to school, which is fun, but also kind of overwhelming, right? I mean, you might be wondering, will I like my new teacher? Will they like me? Will I make new friends or still get along with my old ones? And what about getting around a whole new building? Well, we're here to help. If you're part of Smarty Pass, we've got a bonus back to school episode just for you. We've got some experts joining us to answer listener questions about starting the new school year. Just check your Smarty Pass feed to find it. And if you're not part of Smarty Pass, join now to support us and get bonus episodes. Just head to smartypass.org to sign up. Thanks, and good luck with the new school year. Speaker 6 (3:05) You're listening to Brains On, part of the Brains On universe. This is the show where we answer your questions about the world. My co-host today is Adriel from Chicago. Hi, Speaker 7 (3:15) Adriel. Hi, Molly. Speaker 6 (3:17) Today we're answering your question that you sent to us, Adriel. Speaker 7 (3:20) Why do people dance when they hear music? Speaker 6 (3:23) It is a very relatable question. So, Adriel, I'm wondering, when music comes on, do you find yourself dancing? Speaker 7 (3:30) Yep, bobbing my head. Speaker 6 (3:33) Do you like to dance? Speaker 7 (3:34) A little. Speaker 6 (3:35) Okay, what are the circumstances in which you like to dance, would you say? Speaker 7 (3:40) Free dancing. Speaker 6 (3:42) So like not being made to do like a specific move or something. Have you ever taken a dance class? Speaker 7 (3:47) At my school, we had a dance class and it wasn't my favorite. Speaker 6 (3:52) Did you have to do square dancing or what kind of dance were you doing? Speaker 7 (3:55) I've been in it since kindergarten, so we've done a lot of different things. But we did do square dancing once, and then we have shows every year. Speaker 6 (4:08) Oh, wow. That's really cool. Are you more of a dance with your feet person or dance with your arms person or some other body part? Speaker 7 (4:17) I'm more a dance with my head person. Speaker 6 (4:19) Okay, so you're moving that head. What kind of music do you like to listen to? Speaker 7 (4:25) Energetic songs that, like, pump you up and throw a bit of rock. Speaker 6 (4:30) Okay. Would you rather be able to hear any music and play it back on an instrument? perfectly or see any dance move and be able to dance it perfectly? Speaker 7 (4:42) That's a hard question. I've been bouncing back and forth, but I think I'd like the instrument. Speaker 6 (4:50) Yeah, I think, gosh, yeah, I think instrument too, because people can dance to our amazing music we're playing with our rock and roll band that we're about to start. What should our band be called, Adriel? Speaker 7 (5:03) The Mimickers. Speaker 6 (5:05) Ooh, the mimickers. Very good, because we're copying whatever music we hear. So smart. So good. Let's start with what makes us move. Not all sounds get us tapping our toes. Speaker 7 (5:21) Yeah, there are plenty of melodies that aren't really dancey, like a bird song. And there are rhythms that Speaker 6 (5:29) don't make us bop, like a babbling brook or a jackhammer. Speaker 7 (5:35) These sounds are like music, but not quite, unless you tweaked them a bit. Speaker 6 (5:55) Just like with sounds, not all songs have grooves that make you want to move. For example, it's harder to start bopping to this than it is to this. A Speaker 7 (6:16) dancey song like that has a rhythm. It's got a strong repeating pattern. Speaker 6 (6:21) And it's these rhythmic patterns that tickle our brains and make us start to dance. Speaker 7 (6:27) Turns out we've been making these kinds of patterns for thousands and thousands of years. So Speaker 5 (6:33) before we as humans even had language accessible to us, we had our bodies to move and we had rhythms that we created with our bodies and sticks and stones and other things that were around us that became music. Speaker 6 (6:48) That's Julia Basso. She's a professor at Virginia Tech. Speaker 5 (6:52) And she's also a lifelong dancer. I came up doing ballet and jazz and tap and all the traditional dance forms. And then in college, I decided to double major. And one of those majors was dance. And Speaker 7 (7:07) the other Speaker 5 (7:08) major was neuroscience. Speaker 7 (7:10) She studied dancing and brain science. Cool combo. Speaker 6 (7:14) Yeah. Julia says dance and body movement are very likely part of how we communicated before we had language. Speaker 5 (7:21) The idea was that we were able to use our bodies and move to these rhythms to communicate with one another and to convey ideas not only to the people around us but to other individuals that we might come in contact with. Speaker 7 (7:35) So dancing might be like an ancient form of communication. Speaker 6 (7:38) Which makes a lot of sense when you learn that dancing activates some of the same parts of the brain as talking does. That's why scientists like Julia think that dancing and talking might be related. Speaker 7 (7:50) It's almost like dancing is talking for the body and talking is dancing for the mouth. Exactly. And Speaker 6 (7:57) it gets cooler, too. Researchers like Julia had people wear special caps. with devices on them that can measure brain activity. These caps let you see what the brain is up to. Speaker 7 (8:10) These researchers then asked some people to talk together, like get into a really good conversation. And they had Speaker 6 (8:17) other people dance together, like making up moves while listening to the same song. Speaker 7 (8:22) Droid says they noticed something really neat. Speaker 5 (8:25) When we start looking at... the brains of two individuals either speaking to one another and dancing together, what we see is that their brain activity actually starts to coordinate. Speaker 6 (8:37) In both groups, the brainwaves of one person looked a lot like the brainwaves of their partner, whether they were talking together or dancing together. Speaker 7 (8:48) It's like they were synced up. They're on the same wavelength. Speaker 5 (8:52) This kind of thing is a thing called interbrain synchrony. or neural synchrony, and it is a brain activity measure that is thought to underlie our social interactions, which