So what did the “fast-paced electronic music” sound like to the sakis? Are melodies lost in the ears of monkeys? What does a pitchless world sound like? Human speech is comprised of a noise component and a pitch component to isolate the pitch component, simply imagine someone whispering. Although monkeys are capable of producing pitch themselves, humans are more sensitive to the pitch of the monkey calls more than the monkeys are themselves. Conway, a neuroscientist and artist who specializes in visual perception, in a 2019 study. Monkeys seem to respond to sounds with pitch about the same, if not a little worse, than the way their brains respond to sounds with noise,” remarks Bevil B. “Humans have a very strong bias in their cortex their brain responds very strongly to sounds that have a pitch quality to them compared to sounds that don’t. The brain of a macaque monkey does not distinguish between regular noise and harmonic tones. What’s interesting is this: another study has found that compared to monkey brains, human brains have a stronger preference for pitch. Perhaps these monkeys are manifesting their move to the city. However, given that the sound of traffic is so unfamiliar to the sakis and not related to their normal daily life-unlike, for example, the sound of rain-it came as a surprise that they were interested in those sounds,' said Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas, a postdoctoral researcher at Aalto University. 'I've been working with animals for a long time, and learned to keep an open mind. The most popular choice of sound was… (drum roll) traffic ambience. It turned out that the sakis chose to use the sound devices regularly, and even began to “sleep, groom, and socialise” with other monkeys inside the device. Instead of just playing music and other sounds in their living environment and seeing how it works, we gave them a system that they could approach and use themselves,' stated Roosa Piitulainen, an author of Aalto University’s research paper.

“It was essential to give animals decision-making power and independence. No harsh or loud sounds were embedded into these sound devices, so as to ensure the sakis’ peace of mind: these are not sounds of predators. For several months, these sound devices were placed within the monkeys’ enclosed habitat, loaded with different genres of sounds: “calm music”, “fast-paced electronic music”, rain sounds, traffic ambience, or silence. And what about music? Do some monkeys like d’n’b more than others?Īfter testing two prototypes, the sound device was built: tunnel-shaped, with a plywood base and a transparent acrylic ceiling, it was tailored for the monkeys’ habitat and could be easily switched on and off. Studies have shown that primates process visual information in very similar ways to humans, but little is known about how primates process audio. 'When I thought I had all the pieces put into place, I figured any good theory is testable, so one of the ways to test it would be to see if I could write music that would be affective for species other than human,' he says.A team of Finnish scientists from Aalto University’s Animal-Computer Interaction research team have developed a sound device for a group of white-faced saki monkeys at the Korkeasaari Zoo in Helsinki. His theory is that music relates to the most primitive sounds we make and respond to, like laughter, heartbeats, or a mother's cooing. Teie has been developing a theory to explain why music plays on human emotions. And he got it by writing music not for humans, but for monkeys.ĭavid Teie plays cello with the National Symphony Orchestra and even on occasion with the heavy metal band Metallica.

Psychologists have tried in vain to figure out why that happens. Music has great power to alter our emotions - making us happy or sad, agitated or calm. In the study, cotton-top tamarins grew calmer after they heard music compositions based on their own calm, friendly calls, and became more agitated when exposed to music that contained elements of their own threatening or fearful calls.īryce Richter/University of Wisconsin-Madison

Monkey listening to music