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.
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.
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