Every now and then a song comes on that makes you move. But why does it make you want to jump up and dance? A new study suggests it’s all about the bass — even if we can’t hear it.
“Music is a fundamental part of being human,” says Dan Cameron. He is a neuroscientist in Canada at McMaster University. It’s in Hamilton, Ontario. Music and dance are found in all cultures around the world, he notes. “It’s something we use to feel good. Something we use to connect with one another.” But why? Cameron’s team wanted to find out what about music makes us want to groove.
The researchers hired the electronic duo Orphx to play in the LIVELab. This space is equal parts experimental lab and theater. Cameron was part of a team that used LIVELab to study how people respond to live performances. In this case, people were invited to take part in a techno music concert.
In the groove
The team specifically wanted to see how people responded to bass sounds with very low frequencies. In most music, bass provides the beat that people dance to. We don’t just hear that bass. We feel it, too. Our bodies are loaded with receptors — especially in the skin — that sense movement. They detect touch. They also can sense air vibrations caused by loud sounds. These receptors are the reason you can feel thunder or the sound from a really loud speaker. The team wondered if what drives the urge to dance might be sounds that were felt but too low to hear.
Before the Orphx concert started, the research team added an extra set of speakers to the LIVELab. These were not connected to the performers’ equipment. Instead, the researchers used them to play very low frequency sounds. These were too low for human ears to sense.
Each of the study’s 43 adult participants wore a headband with reflective balls attached to it. Cameras placed around the room sent out pulses of infrared light. This light reflected off the headband. The setup allowed…
Read the full article here