WEBVTT - Do Animals Appreciate Music? 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:04.720 Hey, welcome to Sign Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio. I'm 0:00:04.720 --> 0:00:08.200 Hoorheit Champ, and today we're tackling the question can animals 0:00:08.480 --> 0:00:10.000 appreciate music? 0:00:10.840 --> 0:00:11.039 Now? 0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:13.400 This is a special episode because we're going to talk 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:16.400 to three people who play music for animals, but to 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:19.599 each do it for a different reason. We're going to 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:22.239 talk to an artist who sings to exotic animals to 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:25.920 make online videos, an animal well for a specialist who 0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:29.720 works in the meat industry, and a psychologist who's interested 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:33.640 in the musicality of animals. To bring your pets along 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:36.240 and home tune with us as we answer the question 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:39.280 can animals appreciate music? 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:43.440 Well? 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:47.879 Hey, everyone, all right. The first person we're talking to 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:51.159 today is a musician who's known for posting videos where 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:55.640 he sings to animals. If you spend time on social media, 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:59.360 chances are you've seen Lauris, Aesadian who goes by the 0:00:59.440 --> 0:01:03.200 artist's name Plumes, playing a guitar outside in a farm 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:08.720 or a field, singing to cows, parrots, lamas, mirkats, pandas, 0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:10.240 and even to raffs. 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:20.399 Las Plumes his. 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:24.720 Videos get millions of views, and his Instagram account, Plumes Official, 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:28.720 has over a million followers. My biggest question for Plumes 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:34.160 was do the animals actually react to his music? Well, 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:36.160 thank you so much, mister Assadian for joining us. 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:37.560 Of course, thanks for having me. 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:39.320 Can you please tell us who you are and what 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:39.760 you do. 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:42.240 Yeah, so I'm a singer. I'm a French singer and 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:45.160 my artist's name is prim and I sing for a 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:49.480 pretty unusual crowd, I would say, because it's animals, and yeah, 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:50.600 I've been doing this for awhile. 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:50.920 Now. 0:01:51.120 --> 0:01:53.840 Yeah, you push your videos on Instagram. 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:56.720 Exactly, Yeah, on pretty much all social media platforms. 0:01:56.880 --> 0:01:59.240 Why did you start playing music for animals? 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:02.840 Well, I've found out that carols like music over three 0:02:02.880 --> 0:02:05.680 years ago now, so naturally I want to try it 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:08.480 out for myself, being a musician and at the time 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:10.840 I was living in the countryside with my grandma, so 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:13.400 there's lots of cals around, so it was the perfect 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:16.120 opportunity for me, and so I went in there. I 0:02:16.160 --> 0:02:17.320 was pretty scared at first. 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:19.600 Were you afraid that they would do harm to you 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:21.040 or that they wouldn't like your music? 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:23.800 I guess both that they wouldn't like my music, so 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:26.880 they would do harm to me as a replication of 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:29.880 the thing. But there's giants, so I guess it can 0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:32.880 be a bit overwhelming. And they're also very curious, so 0:02:33.040 --> 0:02:35.400 they will come running towards you and you don't know 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:37.560 if they're going to stop or not. So I was 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:40.480 a bit scared. Now I'm not scared at all. Even 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:42.840 though you have to be careful with animals sometimes you 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:45.880 have to respect the boundaries and stuff. But yeah, now 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:46.680 I'm not scared. 0:02:46.880 --> 0:02:47.200 Wow. 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:50.560 How do animals typically react to you playing music for them? 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:53.440 Well, they pretty much all want to get closer to 0:02:53.480 --> 0:02:56.320 the music and investigate what the music is all about. 0:02:56.600 --> 0:02:59.320 Some of them even like rub their heads against me 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:03.240 or try to have a contact, and others they just 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:06.320 stay around to listen to music and it can last 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:08.040 sometimes up to an hour. 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:11.400 Do you see them react to the specific songs, because 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:13.280 I know sometimes in the video it seems like they're 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:14.600 dancing to the music. 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:15.119 Yeah. 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:18.440 Sometimes, and some animals like parrots, have a sense of 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:21.320 rhythm and they will start dancing in rhythm to the 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:24.200 music and sometimes singing along and stuff like this. 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:27.520 Any other interesting reactions that you've noticed. 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:30.320 Mostly surprises, I would say, because there are some animals 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:32.919 that you didn't expect to come close because they're wild, 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:35.920 like the okps. I sang for an okp and I 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:39.480 was warned before that nothing is going to happen, basically 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:42.240 like you can try anyways, but it's not worth it 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:44.800 in a way. And I went in there anyways, and 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:47.680 he came right against me to listen to music for 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:49.920 like an hour, all right. 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:52.600 If you look at Plumes's account Plumes of VCL, you 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:57.480 see videos of them playing music to cows, goats, puppies, cats, pigs, 0:03:57.600 --> 0:04:15.640 mini pigs, horses, parrots, capybaras, meerkats, copies, elephants, giraffes, donkeys, deer, sheep, lemurs, flamingos, tapiers, owls, pandas, penguins, camels, rhinoceroses, gibbons, seals, raccoons, tigers, 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:18.960 oh my. And in the videos you'll see the animals 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:22.400 appear to react to his music playing. The animals will 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:25.799 often come up to Plumes and we're curious or interested 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:28.520 in the music. There's one video where he plays a 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:32.040 Lady Gaga song to a white tiger and the tiger 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:35.479 seems to come over and sit down to listen. Or 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:38.440 in another video, he plays an Oasis song to some 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:42.080 orangutans and the orangutans not only come over to listen, 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:45.320 but one of them starts to clap, which made me 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:49.039 wonder what kind of music does each animal like to hear? 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:54.960 So in your videos you've sung Green Day to puppies, 0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:59.240 Bruno Mars to horses, the Beatles to donkeys, Katie Perry 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:01.839 to flamingos. How do you pick the music to sing 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:02.560 to each animal? 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:04.960 Well, if there's a little nod or a little wink 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:07.800 to like a species, I like to choose that song. 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:10.760 I will play three Little Birds for parrots or things 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:13.320 like this, you know, But usually it's mostly like love 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:15.919 songs because I feel like the intent is very important 0:05:16.000 --> 0:05:18.760 and somehow they can feel the intent that you're putting 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:19.239 out there. 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:22.760 So what has been your favorite animal to play for 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:23.320 so far? 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:26.440 I would say the rhinos because it was like the 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:29.840 most powerful expanse in a way, because once again we 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:33.680 were told that they might not approach and they ended 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:35.839 up being like right against me. I was on top 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:38.560 of a rock for safety issues, and we thought they 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:41.720 couldn't reach that rock. Turns out they could, and yeah, 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:44.279 they kind of touch me with their arms. It was 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:46.160 a bit dangerous this time. I'm not gonna lie, but 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:49.080 it was so powerful and we all like to de 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:51.520 season once in a lifetime moment for us. 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:53.200 So they did react to the music. 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:55.960 Yeah, yeah, they were very curious. And we even came 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:58.640 back the next day and the same thing happened. 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:00.760 And so they seemed to generally react to the music. 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:01.159 Yeah. 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:03.200 Yeah, a lot of people don't want to see that 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:06.080 animals are sensitive so that they would come anyways no 0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:08.599 matter what. But turns out when well, there are twenty 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:11.880 minutes beforehand to set up the cameras and the mics 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:14.160 and stuff, and the animals don't come, and it's only 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:16.640 when the music stells that they end upcoming her. So 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:18.159 it's interesting to reat us. 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:22.320 Oh wow, Now I know what you're thinking. This doesn't 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:26.840 sound very scientific, and it's not. We're going to talk 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:29.840 to two scientists later in the program who do academic 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:33.520 research on the connections between animals and music. But what's 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:36.960 interesting about these videos is not how the animals react 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:41.000 to the music, but how one specific animal reacts to 0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:47.239 the videos themselves. Well, I think the most interesting animal 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:51.279 reaction you have to your videos is from people. Yeah, 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:53.360 let me read you a couple of comments. I saw 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:57.120 somebody said, your videos make me look and feel animals 0:06:57.360 --> 0:06:59.680 in a way that is totally new for me. And 0:06:59.760 --> 0:07:01.719 that's if you sort of echo what you said the 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:03.839 first time you did this. What do you think is 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:06.839 happening to people who see these videos of you playing 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:07.640 to animals? 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:10.440 Yeah, I guess if I can make people click the 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:12.960 same way clicked for me when I first met animals, 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:15.080 it's great, you know, because I don't want to be 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:18.040 like telling people what to do, so I guess I 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:20.960 just put my videos online and people take what they 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:23.800 want from it. Like a lot of times, people tell me, yeah, 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:26.760 I stopped teaching meat since I first started watching your wids, 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:28.520 and that means a lot to me if I can 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:31.200 have a positive impact on the animal world. 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:33.200 When you said something click, what do you mean by that? 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:37.000 Well, for me, I stopped teaching meat today I met animals, 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:40.720 so there's definitely something that clicks for me. I was like, 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:43.600 how can I think for a cow in the afternoon 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:44.760 and then at night itter s. 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:45.640 Tech or whatever. 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:49.320 Somebody also said you are such a bright, beautiful spot 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:52.000 in a troubled world. Thank you for creating a bridge 0:07:52.040 --> 0:07:53.760 between humans and animals. 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:57.080 That's very kay. I feel like It might sound a 0:07:57.120 --> 0:07:59.400 little bit boomer, but I feel like maybe we lost 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:02.679 touch on generation with nature, and so maybe it feels 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:05.960 good for people to get that back, to see people 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:09.400 hanging out with animals. I think it can definitely feel 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:12.280 even powerful and soothing for people to watch. 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:14.520 Yeah, a lot of people mention that we're living in 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:15.680 very troubled times. 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:18.240 I know I have a lot of American people following me, 0:08:18.600 --> 0:08:20.840 and I don't know much about politics and stuff, but 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:23.200 I guess it's not the best right now. I don't 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:25.440 really know, So if I can help to make them 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:27.240 feel a little bit better, that's great. 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:31.160 All right. So we have a first send account someone 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:35.480 who's played music to penguins, seals, drafts, and all kinds 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:39.120 of animals, and he reports that animals in general do 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:43.480 reactive with music and seem genuinely curious about it. Next, 0:08:43.559 --> 0:08:46.000 we're going to talk to scientists who's done something similar 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:49.560 to plumes, but in a scientific setting. She's played music 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:52.320 to pigs to figure out what kind of music they 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:55.160 like to listen to and whether or not music can 0:08:55.200 --> 0:08:59.400 make pigs feel emotions. We'll dig into that, but first 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:02.800 I should tell tell you about a terrible idea I had. 0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:06.880 Is there anything that you would like to tell folks 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:07.400 out there? 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:07.720 Yeah? 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:11.000 Yes, So a lot of people are afraid to copy 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:13.640 my VIDs when they go and sing for animals. And 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:15.480 I would say, if you've seen make it, honestly, it's 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:17.840 so nice. If I can inspire people to do the 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:20.120 same thing, I won't take it badly at all. So 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:22.480 if you're a musician and you want to try it out, 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:23.280 please do. 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:26.320 Oh great, I might try it out for this episode. 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:26.840 All nice? 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:27.800 Did you play music? 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:30.240 I play a little piano and a little bit of guitar, 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:32.240 but I'm a terrible singer. I think that might be 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:33.080 the problem, but. 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:35.520 I don't think they care, honestly, can't the least judge 0:09:35.520 --> 0:09:36.680 the audience that I've had. 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:49.160 Stay with us, We'll be right back, Welcome back. All right. 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:53.400 We're answering the question can animals appreciate music? And we 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:56.800 just heard from a musician play music for animals ranging 0:09:56.840 --> 0:10:01.160 from giraffes to pandas, and according to him, the animals 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:04.400 do react, or at least they seem treious. So another 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:08.240 question is is this really true? Do animals have an actual 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:11.920 emotional reaction when you play human music for them? To 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:14.439 answer this question, I talk to someone who does research 0:10:14.559 --> 0:10:18.440 in animal welfare, Professor Maria Camilla Sevaios. 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:23.560 I am Maria Camilla Sevadius, and I am Associate Professor 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:26.160 of Animal Welfare and Behavior at the University of Calgary. 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:30.360 I am a researcher and specifically my research focus in 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:33.960 finding strategies to improve the quality of life of animals, 0:10:34.040 --> 0:10:37.560 especially captive animals. One of the research lines which I 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:42.319 have started is in a strong collaboration with doctor Erardo Rodriguez, 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:47.080 is identifying music as a possible environmental enrichment. 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:51.119 What is this idea of using music for animal welfare? 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:54.360 When we have captive animals, there are different strategies to 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:58.000 improve their welfare. Right, One way to improve their welfare 0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:02.319 is giving them some environmental such as give them control 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:06.720 of the environment where they are or make that environment better. 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:11.440 Music is and now it is environment talentca so we 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:15.280 can use different kinds of sounds to improve the environment. 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:15.480 Where they are. 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:18.600 I guess what do we know about how animals respond 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:19.360 to music? 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:23.400 In animals, there is a lot of studies demonstrating that 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:27.760 different species of animals they react to music. They change 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:32.280 behaviors depending on the quality of the music or the 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:34.920 type of music that you put they will react right. 0:11:36.360 --> 0:11:39.200 According to doctors Valius, there have been many studies that 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:42.560 have looked at how animals react to music. Scientists have 0:11:42.640 --> 0:11:48.120 cleared music to gorillas, chimpanzees, sparrows, elephants, cows, and dogs, 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:53.000 to somewhat mixed results. Some studies find that the animals 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:57.880 do react while others don't, and usually the studies use 0:11:58.000 --> 0:12:02.400 classical music. For example, a scientists have tested whether classical 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:06.840 music makes guerrillas less anxious. It does, or whether it 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:11.280 helps dogs sleep better. It does. In one study, scientists 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:15.160 from the University of twelf tested whether country music made 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:19.000 cows want to be milk more it does. It all 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:22.120 makes doctor Sivaias and her colleagues wonder if the type 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:25.080 of music played to pigs made a difference. 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:31.040 For example, we did a study in collaboration with doctor 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:34.920 Bernardo from the University of Antiochia and Juliana who was 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:37.400 the first author of this was her PhD. 0:12:37.559 --> 0:12:37.920 Study. 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:42.160 We wanted to see first if pigs will react to 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:46.160 music right, and second, after we identified if they react 0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:50.040 or not, what kind of music they like. More So Bernardo, 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:52.400 he is a musician so he created different kinds of 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:56.599 music where he knew all this spectro temporal characteristic of 0:12:56.640 --> 0:12:59.679 the music. So, for example, number of instruments the high 0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:03.599 frank and see contained the amplitude, the same troid desonance 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:05.480 right the spectral devia. 0:13:05.559 --> 0:13:06.640 So there are a lot. 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:10.120 Of different things that you know as a musician that 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:11.360 you have the information. 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:15.120 Doctor Sibaias and her colleagues wanted to know what kind 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:18.920 of music pigs react to. So they created music pieces 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:23.120 that had different properties, how complex it is, what frequencies 0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:27.920 it had, and specifically they varied something called consonants. Now 0:13:27.960 --> 0:13:30.000 I'm not a musician, but the idea is that a 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:34.319 certain combination of notes seem more pleasant to us than others. 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:37.479 There's no exact definition, and it's all a bit subjective. 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:41.439 But for example, in Western tradition, this combination of notes 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:57.800 is considered consonant, whereas this combination is considered dissonant. Now 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:08.120 here's an example of consonant music. The scientists played the pigs. 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:22.200 Here's an example of the dissonant music they played. And 0:14:22.280 --> 0:14:24.560 at the same time, while of the music was playing, 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:28.400 doctor Sebaias and her colleagues measured the pig's emotions. 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:34.720 So we use a specific indicator called qualitative behavior assessment, 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:37.600 which allows us to assess emotions. 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:38.760 How does this work. 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:43.320 This is a broad indicator where you have different terms, right, 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:49.120 such as for example, comfortable, stress, fearful, and there are 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:53.560 around twenty terms. Then you have a visual and analogical scale. 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:57.520 You observe the animal independent on how the animal interacts 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:01.800 with the environment, and you will give in that analogical scale. Okay, 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:06.440 I think this animal is happy, it's playful, it's comfortable, 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:09.000 or noise is stress, is fearful or things like that. 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:12.000 I see. This is a person with a paper observing 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:16.480 the animal and then rating all of these different adjectives correct. 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:19.880 And that allows us to identify how is the emotion 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:22.400 of the animal in terms of that specific situation. 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:25.960 All right, here's the experiment. There's two parts. In the first, 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:29.440 the scientists played music with different characteristics to a group 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:32.680 of pigs and observed how the pigs reacted based on 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:34.240 a scale of emotions. 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:41.200 From there, we identified, for example, that pigs they negatively react. 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:42.240 To this music. 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:44.760 If you put this on a music that will generate fear, 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:48.760 they will generate the stress, but consonant music will generate 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:52.480 like positive emotions such as play such as happy. 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:56.920 So, yeah, if you found the consonant notes in music 0:15:56.960 --> 0:16:01.240 I played for you pleasant and the dissonant music notes unpleasant, 0:16:01.680 --> 0:16:04.240 so the pigs they have the same reaction to the 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:07.560 music you and I have, okay. And then the second 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:10.040 part of the experiment they use the music pigs like 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:13.360 the consonant music as a form of therapy. 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:17.600 And then the next step was using that music that 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:21.400 we identified like that is spectro te characteristic music that 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:25.280 we identified that actually they were reacting better. It was 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:28.440 compared with pigs that did not receive any stimulus. 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:31.680 Here, the pigs were split into two groups. For one 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:34.840 group of pigs, the scientists would play the consonant music 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:38.400 at different times during the day, and for the other group, 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:41.160 they wouldn't play them any music at all. And then 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:44.760 they measured two things, how the pigs behaved and also 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:48.640 their levels of cortsol, which is a stress hormone. 0:16:50.280 --> 0:16:54.440 Wholly unidentified that for example, pigs that received the music, 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:57.480 they would cope better with the environment in terms of 0:16:57.560 --> 0:17:02.280 she evaliated behavioral characteristics and also physiological characteristics. Right, so 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:07.080 those big lids that received the environmental enrichment. Physiologically, they 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:10.280 had a better pattern. They are less. 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:14.880 Stress okay, somehow Okay, So to recap the found, picks 0:17:14.920 --> 0:17:18.600 seem to have an emotional reaction to different kinds of music, 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:20.920 and that plain for them, the music that made them 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:28.399 exhibit more positive emotions lowered their stress level. Okay, So 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:31.800 then your study and other studies have shown that animals 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:34.880 have an emotional response to music. Is that true? 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:39.800 Well, so we speak about emotions, right. Other studies have 0:17:40.160 --> 0:17:45.800 mostly focused on other indicators such as behavior or they 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:50.520 have physiological indicators that demonstrates that they are coping better. 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:55.240 But specific studies speaking about these generates emotions. We still 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:58.840 need to work and continue and trying to find emotions 0:17:58.920 --> 0:18:03.080 to identify to evaluid emotions. It's difficult, right, Animals won't 0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:04.640 tell you, oh, I feel good. 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:07.480 Right right? Well, what do you think was happening then 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:11.160 in the pig's brain when you played the music that 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:13.199 they seem to respond better to. 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:17.120 So, pigs they are extremely similar to humans, right, They 0:18:17.240 --> 0:18:20.800 work physiologically, very very similar to us. So they have 0:18:20.960 --> 0:18:24.960 all these structures in the brain that allows them to 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:29.840 process that sense, all the stimus so they will hear it, 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:32.760 it will enter, it will be processed in the year, 0:18:33.040 --> 0:18:35.840 and then it will go through the ipotala mus and 0:18:36.000 --> 0:18:39.760 it will go through the tiling cephalo. I would assume 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:43.000 that the process of the music would be pretty similar 0:18:43.080 --> 0:18:45.280 to the process of music we have in humans, but 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:46.800 we don't know right there. 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:50.040 Is a lack of studies on that. This princess to 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:53.200 the main question of the episode. What's going on in 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:57.400 the animals' brain when it hears music? Can they actually 0:18:57.760 --> 0:19:00.560 appreciate it? To find out, we're going to talk to 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:04.240 a neuroscientists studies the brains of animals to figure out 0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:08.400 if they have something called musicality. Stay with us, you're 0:19:08.440 --> 0:19:22.080 listening to science stuff. Welcome back. We're answering the question 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:25.520 can animals appreciate music? And here we get to the 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:28.119 heart of the matter, or should I say the brain 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:31.080 of the matter. In the last two segments, we confirm 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:33.680 that animals react to music and that they seem to 0:19:33.720 --> 0:19:37.479 have an emotional response to different kinds of music. Now 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:40.680 we'll get to the question do they really appreciate music? 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:44.280 To answer that, I talk to a cognitive neuroscientist who's 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:50.359 been studying the musicality of animals. Well, thank you doctor 0:19:50.400 --> 0:19:51.800 Raviani for joining us. 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:54.840 Thank you very much for having me. Can you please 0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:56.680 tell us who you are and what do you do. Yes, 0:19:56.800 --> 0:20:00.159 my name is Andre Ravignani. I am a researcher and 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:04.040 a professor at the Department of Human Neurosciences at Sapienza 0:20:04.160 --> 0:20:07.280 University of Roman and also honorary professor at the Center 0:20:07.359 --> 0:20:10.160 for Music in the Brain in Als in Denmark, which 0:20:10.240 --> 0:20:12.000 is probably one of the few places in the world 0:20:12.040 --> 0:20:14.720 where the study of neuroscience and music are combined. 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:17.560 So can you explain to us what is biomusicology. 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:21.200 It's a term that has been used a lot in 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:25.600 recent years to denote a biological approach to music, or 0:20:25.760 --> 0:20:28.960 better a biological approach to musicality. And this is a 0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:32.159 very important distinction. To make music is the you know, 0:20:32.280 --> 0:20:36.320 the cultural artifact, the object of study of many fields 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:39.920 of humanities and arts. While musicality is defined as the 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:44.679 set of skills that allows us to produce, perceive music, 0:20:44.760 --> 0:20:46.560 to move in time to music, and so on and 0:20:46.720 --> 0:20:51.000 so forth. Musicality is more the set of psychological, cognitive, 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:54.960 biological building blocks that makes us musical animals. 0:20:55.119 --> 0:20:59.160 And so you do this by comparing humans and animals exactly. 0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:03.760 Our general approaches not to play Mozart to teenagers and 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:06.440 to cows and to see what effect it has on 0:21:06.560 --> 0:21:10.119 their behavior. Our approach is to distill the building blocks 0:21:10.119 --> 0:21:10.920 of musicality. 0:21:12.400 --> 0:21:16.760 Doctor Ravinani studies the musicality of animals, which is basically 0:21:16.920 --> 0:21:20.440 the ability to understand music, and these published papers about 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:27.040 disability and seals, chimpanzees, squirrel, monkeys, penguins, whales, dogs, dolphins, 0:21:27.280 --> 0:21:32.720 rangutans and other animals. Now, according to doctor Ravinani, musicality 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:35.600 can be broken down into a set of skills that 0:21:35.840 --> 0:21:39.240 some animals seem to have and others don't. 0:21:41.160 --> 0:21:43.960 So, for instance, one of those is bit perceptions. For instance, 0:21:44.000 --> 0:21:45.760 when we go to a club and we dance and 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:48.800 we're moving time to music, then we recruit these fairly 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:52.320 complex and neural capacity to moving time and to predict 0:21:52.320 --> 0:21:55.760 the next bit. Other traits are vocal learning, so learning 0:21:56.040 --> 0:21:58.920 sounds that do not belong to your natural repertoire learning 0:21:59.000 --> 0:22:01.840 sounds that are not innate. You can think about absolute 0:22:01.880 --> 0:22:05.119 and relative pitch. So imagine I play happy Birthday to you, 0:22:05.359 --> 0:22:08.200 or imagine yeah, all the human beings singing happy birthday 0:22:08.240 --> 0:22:10.680 to you, They're not always starting from the same note. 0:22:11.000 --> 0:22:13.600 So I start from a sea and you start from 0:22:13.640 --> 0:22:16.639 a C sharp. It's just the same melody, but presposed 0:22:16.680 --> 0:22:19.840