Reacción a "Two macaques can tap to the beat of music in an experimental study"

This study addresses the ability to perceive and synchronise rhythmic beats in a species of non-human primates such as macaques. The data presented are based on a rigorous and meticulously designed methodology. The perception of rhythmic beats responds to a cognitive process subject to a certain degree of subjectivity. In this sense, the results of the study suggest that the subjects studied show an ability to perceive and synchronise to the beat of music with a degree of skill not previously observed in macaques. According to the authors, this ability would be latent but would be activated in the presence of certain essential components, such as temporal prediction or association with a reward system.

Regarding the ability of non-human animal species to perceive rhythmic beats, vocal learning (the ability to integrate new vocalisations that are not part of the species' vocal repertoire) has been proposed as one of the requirements for rhythmic perception and synchronisation. However, this study demonstrates that an animal species without vocal learning, such as the macaque, can successfully synchronise to the beat. On a theoretical level, this challenges the hypothesis of vocal learning as a requirement for beat synchronisation, forcing us to reconsider the hypothesis and/or concept of vocal learning.

This research is pioneering in exploring the ability of non-human primates to synchronise to the beat of a real piece of music. Previous research had observed the ability of these animals to synchronise to the beat of a rhythm explicitly composed of beats (e.g., metronome). However, the study goes a step further and examines the ability of macaques to extract and maintain the rhythmic beat of musical pieces, thus increasing the cognitive load of the task. In practice, this means that macaques demonstrate rhythmic abilities previously observed only in certain animal species (mostly with vocal learning), such as spontaneous synchronisation (without training on the stimuli presented) to the rhythmic beat, or the abstraction of an explicit beat to a subjective beat integrated into a complete piece of music.

It is important to highlight other relevant aspects of the study. According to the methodology used, it is possible to observe rhythmic synchronisation in macaques under the experimental conditions described, although this does not imply that this is the natural behaviour of macaques. On the other hand, the paradigm is based on an extensive prior training process to successfully complete the experiments, and on the presence of a reward system to activate behavioural responses in macaques, a fact that contrasts with the behaviour and abilities associated with humans in this context. Overall, this study is of notable scientific relevance, contributing to the advancement of knowledge about the rhythmic abilities of non-human primates and suggesting a review of the evolutionary relationships between species.