A study reveals that concertgoers dance more when the loudspeakers emit infrasound

A dance music to which sounds with imperceptible low frequencies are added will encourage more to dance than the same music without these sounds, according to a study conducted by the Canadian MacMaster University. Research proves that when dancing, not only perceptible sound is involved, but also inaudible vibrations of very low tones that drive you to move to the rhythm of whatever sounds.

This conclusion comes after an experiment designed in a laboratory concert hall to investigate how very low tones, at frequencies from 8 to 37 hertz, influence the desire to dance with a certain music. It had already been shown in previous research that rhythms marked by low tones encourage dancing, as explained by the authors in the work that they have just published in Current Biology. They wanted to know if, apart from hearing, other factors influence the feeling of that impulse to dance.

An experiment concert of electronic music

To test these other factors apart from the audible, the researchers released and put up for sale tickets to a concert by the electronic music duo Orphx. On the day of the concert, as attendees entered the laboratory room, they were asked if they wanted to participate in an experiment. Those who agreed were given a headband with motion sensors, in addition to doing a survey before and after the concert.

Orphx performed for 55 minutes. Every two and a half minutes, without the public knowing anything, the scientists turned on loudspeakers that emitted the sound at a very low frequency. They found that attendees moved an average of 11.8% more when the ultra-low-frequency speakers were on.

“There are many factors that can influence whether or how we dance at any given time – social context, our personality, confidence, familiarity with the music, how many drinks we’ve had… – but there’s no reason to that those factors (or the musical factors) are more aligned to cause more dancing when the very low frequency speakers are on than when they are off,” Daniel Cameron, neuroscientist, drummer, and lead author of the study, says by email.

Rhythm at very low frequencies

In the surveys, the attendees did not say they wanted to dance more or less than in other concerts, nor did they notice variations in the music in terms of low tones. These statements gave scientists an idea that low and very low frequencies involved systems other than hearing, such as the vestibular system -in the ear, responsible for balance and related to motor skills-.

To further investigate the awareness or not of infrasound, another experiment was carried out. The researchers called 17 people, of whom only one had attended the concert, to indicate in which music fragments they distinguished lower tones. The snippets were identical, the only change was listening to them with the ultralow-frequency speakers on or off. The participants chose at random, they were unable to recognize the presence or absence of infrasound clearly and accurately.

According to the research, infrasound activated other neurological systems, also related to following a beat or rhythm. “The desire to dance may be explained by the close relationship between the vestibular system and the autonomic nervous system, reaching subcortical or more primitive areas of the brain, possibly including the modulation of the reward system, whose activity is associated with rhythm, vigor of movement and tempo dynamics in the motor system”, the authors explain.

These associations could explain why dancing to music is pleasurable and why a rhythm can spark that urge when neither music nor dancing is vital to survival (such as eating or sleeping). “The undetectable nature of low frequencies that prompt dancing and movement suggests a fundamental aspect of human musical cognition and dance behavior,” the authors conclude.

read also