Special Seminar on Bio Design “The Rhythm of Chimpanzees”

As seen in choirs and dances, rhythm coordination to match voice and body movements with others is known as a commonly used means of enhancing social connections in humans. In fact, in cultural and religious rituals around the world, such entrainment is frequently used, and it has been said to have the ability to share specific emotions (e.g., joy, sadness, etc.) and unite feelings in a group.

On the other hand, little is known about the evolutionary origin of how humans have acquired such a high sense of rhythm. In this presentation, the speaker introduces the conformity experiments carried out on the rhythmic sounds on both human and chimpanzees. They also discussed the relations between the social nature of humans and chimpanzees while considering the evolutionary origins of rhythmic conformity in the foundations in the social nature of humans.

*This lecture held as part of the special course on bio design for graduate school special opening courses.

[Lecturer]
Yuko Hattori (Kyoto University Primate Research Institute Center for International Collaboration and Advanced Studies in Primatology Assistant Teacher)