2025年11月27日出版的《科学》杂志发表了科学家的一项最新研究成果。来自的Hugo Merchant课题组报道了猴子有节奏感。

该研究团队证明猕猴可以在真实的节奏中与主观节奏同步，甚至可以在替代策略中自发地这样做。这与有影响力的“声音学习假说”相矛盾，该假说认为，具有复杂学习发声能力的物种享有化学节拍同步的特权。课题组研究人员提出了另一种观点，认为温度感知和同步是一个连续体，不同物种可以根据它们通过与奖励相关的能力来协调上述一般能力。

据了解，与主题同步的运动是人类文化的一个标志，但其进化和神经生物学起源尚不清楚。这种能力需要(1)从连续的声音中提取出稳定的有节奏的脉冲或节拍；（2）及时预测这种模式；（3）定时电机指令，以预测未来的心跳。

附：英文原文

Title: Monkeys have rhythm

Author: Vani G. Rajendran, Luis Prado, Juan Pablo Marquez, Hugo Merchant

Issue&Volume: 2025-11-27

Abstract: Synchronizing movements to music is a hallmark of human culture, but its evolutionary and neurobiological origins remain unknown. This ability requires (i) extracting a steady rhythmic pulse, or beat, out of continuous sounds; (ii) projecting this pattern forward in time; and (iii) timing motor commands to anticipate future beats. Here, we demonstrate that macaques can synchronize to a subjective beat in real music and even spontaneously do so over alternative strategies. This contradicts the influential “vocal-learning hypothesis” that musical beat synchronization is privileged to species with complex learned vocalizations. We propose an alternative view of musical beat perception and synchronization as a continuum onto which different species can be mapped based on their capacity to coordinate the general abilities listed above through association with reward.

DOI: adp5220

Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adp5220