Dance Therapy for the Birds

If anyone saw the youtube vid of the dancing bird who dances to “Everybody” by Backstreet Boys probably laughed at how the bird enjoyed the music. As much as it is quite amusing, the science behind was worth investigating for Patel, a researcher at the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego. He saw that its interesting how our closest relatives (the chimps, monkeys, etc) don’t dance to the music, and yet this bird on Youtube is having a good old time. This raised the question as to how dance affect the brain. To further investigate, can we make a difference once we find out how dancing affects the brain.

“Dance requires a brain that’s been wired up to reproduce complex sounds,” says Patel. “It’s a very rare ability in nature — dolphins do it, seals do it and songbirds do it, but the vast majority of species don’t do it, including most primates.” However, an Harvard student and her colleages studied many of the animals that respond like the youtube, and they found only 32 birds and one elephant gave similar results. These birds are naturally vocal mimics; it was normal for them to mimic to the beat. However to be able to dance to it, shown another sign. “Erich Jarvis, PhD. has argued that birds and humans have similar brain wiring that allows them to mimic sound, and theorizes that the basal ganglia — a deep brain structure involved in motor control — is important to vocal learning.” So I guess the monkeys should step aside in the circle of life and make way for the vocally blessed birds. Come on humans, dance with us, its dance dance evolution!