Whether at a party or a nightclub, or even while relaxing at home, some songs make us want to dance more than others. Now a study published in the journal Science Advances claims this is no coincidence: our bodies naturally want to get moving when our brains are able to anticipate the rhythm of the music.
Researchers from France’s National Institute of Health & Medical Research (Inserm) and Aix-Marseille University came to this conclusion after studying the neural dynamics – the interactions between neurons resulting from the brain’s electrical activity – of 30 volunteers while they listened to a dozen melodies.
These tracks had been designed by the researchers to have a rhythm of 120 beats per minute. Each melody was then modified to make its rhythm more or less complex, but without altering either the tempo of the rhythm or the song’s other musical characteristics.
The scientists then asked the participants to listen to these while they recorded their brain activity in real time using a magnetoencephalography (MEG) machine. At the end of each listening session, the volunteers were asked to rate the level of “groove” they felt – their desire to dance.
At the same time, the researchers created a so-called “neurodynamic” mathematical model of the neural network to better understand the calculations our brains make to determine whether a piece of music is “groovy” or not.
They found that participants were particularly keen to dance when they listened to music with a rhythm that was “not too simple or too complex”.
“These findings show that the motor engagement linked to the groove is materialised by an anticipation of the tempo,” said study first author Arnaud Zalta.
“At brain level, this is based on a dynamic balance between the temporal predictability of the rhythm (the less complex the rhythm, the better it is) and the listener’s temporal prediction errors (the more complex the rhythm, the more errors they make),” Zalta attempted to explain.
In other words, we may find ourselves gripped by an overwhelming desire to dance when our brain is capable of anticipating the rhythm of the music we hear.
Zalta and colleagues hypothesise that the left sensorimotor cortex – a region of the brain involved in processing sensory information and coordinating movements – plays an important role in the “groove” experience. However, this possibility would need to be explored further in the future to confirm its veracity.
While our brains may drive our desire to dance, research suggests we shouldn’t deny ourselves the pleasure. Dancing is a physical activity that benefits both body and mind, stimulating a whole host of cognitive processes simultaneously, from coordinating movements to remembering steps.
This activity also promotes psychological wellbeing by increasing the release of oxytocin and dopamine, and decreasing the secretion of stress-related hormones such as cortisol. So, the next time you find yourself tapping your foot to the beat, don’t hold back!