Thus the chimpanzees use music to communicate: the new study that tells us so much about our sense of rhythm

A recent international study conducted by a team of researchers from the Sapienza of Rome, the University of St. Andrews and the University of Vienna throw new light on theOrigin of musicality in mantaking inspiration from surprising behavior of wild chimpanzees: the drum. Published in the magazine Current Biologythe work reveals that primates, based on the African region in which they live, they produce different rhythms – therefore peculiar of that population – hitting the flat roots of the trees of the rainforest with hands and feet.

This behavior, observed in eleven communities belonging to six distinct populations between western and eastern Africa, shows that chimpanzees in this way not only communicate at a distance – sounds can travel for over a kilometer – but they do it According to recognizable rhythmic schemes. Western chimpanzees tend for example to express themselves with regular and quick beatssimilar to the ticking of a metronome, while the oriental ones alternate more complex rhythmswith variations in times between one blow and another.

“The differences found reflect those observable between the various human musical stylesi »explains Vesta Eleuterifirst author of the study. Adding that the discovery is important not only for primatology but also for cognitive sciences and for an exciting reason to say the least: «The percussive behavior of the chimpanzees could represent a base shared with man for the evolution of musicality»Underlines Andrea Ravignani of Sapienza, senior co -author of research.

Common language music

The musicality is not (or would not be) therefore only a cultural product, as some other investigations in other species had for some time discovered: has deep biological and social roots. «The rhythm is what the music structures – he specifies Jelle Van der Werff of the Roman University – and the tendency to isocrony It is common both in chimpanzees and in human cultures ».

In addition to cognitive aspects, research also takes on a conservation meaning. «Each group of chimpanzees has aSingle sound identity – he adds Catherine Hobaiter of St. Andrews – and the loss of a community also entails the disappearance of his rhythmic style ». A music that goes out forever.

The chimpanzees, our closest relatives with which We share over 98% of the DNAtherefore they continue to surprise us: not only build tools, have complex social structures and use vocalizations to communicate – as we already knew – but they also show a sensitivity to the rhythm which could be one of the common foundations of our musical trends and cultures.