Scientists create music that helps monkeys chill out

Monkey melodies inspired by the animals' calls had a calming effect, hinting at how human music may have evolved
The only human music that calmed the monkeys was Metallica. Photograph: Andy Fossum/Rex Features





Music based on more fearful monkey calls made the animals agitated and anxious when it was played in their enclosure.

The study, published today in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, will help psychologists understand the evolutionary roots of music and its effect on the brain, the authors said.


The findings suggest that the vocal characteristics of tamarin calls evolved to spread calming or anxious feelings throughout groups of the animals.



They then heard the specially composed monkey music.


The research could lead to a rethink of animal husbandry guidelines, as it showed that monkeys rarely respond positively to human music. "Lots of primate research laboratories use radios to provide what is called 'enrichment' for their animals, but you can't expect another species to be interested in our music just because we are human," Snowdon said. "Why should a tamarin find our music comforting? I find the monkey music quite irritating."

Josh McDermott, an expert on music perception in primates at the Centre for Neural Science at New York University, agreed. "This work shows monkeys don't respond to human music. They might be more comforted if these more familiar sounds were played to them."