Babies Born To Dance---Is It Due to God or Evolution?

[John317]

NOTICE THE QUESTION THIS CAUSES SOME SCIENTISTS TO ASK, NO THANKS TO GOD, NATURALLY.

AP LiveScience Staff

LiveScience.com livescience Staff

livescience.com – Mon Mar 15, 3:25 pm ET

Babies love a beat, according to a new study that found dancing comes naturally to infants.

The research showed babies respond to the rhythm and tempo of music, and find it more engaging than speech.

The findings, based on a study of 120 infants between 5 months and 2 years old, suggest that humans may be born with a predisposition to move rhythmically in response to music.

"Our research suggests that it is the beat rather than other features of the music, such as the melody, that produces the response in infants," said researcher Marcel Zentner, a psychologist at the University of York in England. "We also found that the better the children were able to synchronize their movements with the music, the more they smiled."

To test babies' dancing disposition, the researchers played recordings of classical music, rhythmic beats and speech to infants, and videotaped the results. They also recruited professional ballet dancers to analyze how well the babies matched their movements to the music.

During the experiments, the babies were sitting on a parent's lap, though the adults had headphones to make sure they couldn't hear the music and were instructed not to move.

The researchers found the babies moved their arms, hands, legs, feet, torsos and heads in response to the music, much more than to speech.

Though the ability appears to be innate in humans, the researchers aren't sure why it evolved.

"It remains to be understood why humans have developed this particular predisposition," Zentner said. "One possibility is that it was a target of natural selection for music or that it has evolved for some other function that just happens to be relevant for music processing."

[Outta Here]

Yes, God does give us the innate desire for dance!

[aldona]

How does that square with the Adventist anti-dance position?

Are Adventist babies born to march?

aldona

[Dottie]

The first sounds the infant hears are rhythmic--the mother's heartbeat, which they hear all of the time. Speech is intermittent. Melody is even less frequent.

Just something to think about.

[Bravus]

Excellent point, Dottie. Not so surprising if you've ever heard the audio recording from inside the womb.

[phkrause]

NOTICE THE QUESTION THIS CAUSES SOME SCIENTISTS TO ASK, NO THANKS TO GOD, NATURALLY.

AP LiveScience Staff

LiveScience.com livescience Staff

livescience.com – Mon Mar 15, 3:25 pm ET

Babies love a beat, according to a new study that found dancing comes naturally to infants.

The research showed babies respond to the rhythm and tempo of music, and find it more engaging than speech.

The findings, based on a study of 120 infants between 5 months and 2 years old, suggest that humans may be born with a predisposition to move rhythmically in response to music.

"Our research suggests that it is the beat rather than other features of the music, such as the melody, that produces the response in infants," said researcher Marcel Zentner, a psychologist at the University of York in England. "We also found that the better the children were able to synchronize their movements with the music, the more they smiled."

To test babies' dancing disposition, the researchers played recordings of classical music, rhythmic beats and speech to infants, and videotaped the results. They also recruited professional ballet dancers to analyze how well the babies matched their movements to the music.

During the experiments, the babies were sitting on a parent's lap, though the adults had headphones to make sure they couldn't hear the music and were instructed not to move.

The researchers found the babies moved their arms, hands, legs, feet, torsos and heads in response to the music, much more than to speech.

Though the ability appears to be innate in humans, the researchers aren't sure why it evolved.

"It remains to be understood why humans have developed this particular predisposition," Zentner said. "One possibility is that it was a target of natural selection for music or that it has evolved for some other function that just happens to be relevant for music processing."

Very interesting article John.

pk

[John317]

Yes, God does give us the innate desire for dance!

Yes, evidently God did give people an innate desire to move their bodies to the beat of music. Michael Jackson, as it turns out, just exploited a natural abilitiy that everyone is born with.

The fact that we're born with such a desire doesn't mean all dance movements are good, though. Like any other desire we're born with, God expects us to control and channel it in the right way.

[phkrause]

Originally Posted By: Aubrey

Yes, God does give us the innate desire for dance!

Yes, evidently God did give people an innate desire to move their bodies to the beat of music. Michael Jackson, as it turns out, just exploited a natural abilitiy that everyone is born with.

The fact that we're born with such a desire doesn't mean all dance movements are good, though. Like any other desire we're born with, God expects us to control and channel it in the right way.

Interesting points John, very interesting. I agree with them.

pk