Researchers found that when it comes to getting into the rhythm of the dance floor, it’s all about the bass.
Scientists say that when very low frequency (VLF) sound was introduced during a live electronic music event, concertgoers moved more even though they couldn’t hear the frequencies.
“This is a real world – a real dance concert of electronic music – confirmation that bass really makes people dance more and it’s not just something that comes from our conscious awareness,” said Dr. Daniel Cameron, a neuroscientist and first author of work from McMaster University in Canada.
Cameron and colleagues note that previous studies have suggested that music that induces dance has a lower frequency sound and that low pitches help people move in time with the music.
However, it was not clear that this effect of low frequencies would be seen in the real world or when such sounds are not consciously detected.
Writing in the journal Current Biology, the team reports how they organized an electronic music concert by Canadian duo Orphx at McMaster and asked attendees to wear motion-sensing headbands before turning specialized VLF speakers on and off every 2.5 minutes. time of the 55-minute performance period.
Results from 43 attendees who agreed to wear a headband revealed that they moved an average of 11.8% more when the VLF speakers were turned on. Cameron noted that this means people dance more energetically or with more exaggerated movements.
At the end of the concert, 51 attendees filled out a questionnaire that asked if they could feel the music in their body and if the bodily sensations affected their compulsion to move.
The results suggest that concertgoers experienced bodily sensations associated with the music, but that these sensations were not rated as stronger than at similar concerts—settings where VLF loudspeakers are not typically used.
The team then conducted a further experiment in which 17 people were asked to distinguish between a pair of concert clips that were identical and a pair that differed only in the presence or absence of very low frequencies.
The results of 72 such trials revealed that participants did no better than chance in distinguishing the pairs.
Cameron said this supports the conclusion that the concertgoers were not consciously aware of the influence of the VLF.
Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you through the most popular stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertisements and content funded by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to secure our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
“We’d lose all ecological validity if we just turn up the speakers, they become bone-rattling, and everybody can say, ‘oh, there’s really something different going on here,'” he said. “We didn’t want them to know what we were doing.”
The team says it is likely that VLFs are picked up by mechanoreceptors on the skin and in the body, as well as by the vestibular system in the inner ear, which is associated with the sense of balance.
Dr Ann Keitel, lecturer in cognitive neuroscience at the University of Dundee, who was not involved in the study, said that although the very low frequencies did not have a huge effect on the movements of those present, the effect appeared to be remarkably consistent across individuals.
A future area of research, she said, will be to investigate whether such sounds can be measured in people’s brain activity to shed light on how they are picked up and why they affect people’s movements.
Keitel added that studies “in the wild” are extremely rare but important because they help understand whether lab findings are relevant in real life.
“The study does a great job of observing people’s movements during a real concert, and the questionnaires showed that the participants were thoroughly enjoying themselves during the experience – something that doesn’t usually happen in the lab,” she said.
Add Comment