Babies got beat: Why rhythm might be innate

Short Wave

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4.7 • 6.5K Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2026

⏱️ 8 minutes

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Summary

Rhythm is everywhere. Even if you don’t think you have it, it’s fundamental to humans’ biological systems. Our heartbeat is rhythmic. Speech is rhythmic. Even as babies, humans can track basic rhythm. Researchers wanted to find out if there were more layers to this: Could babies also track melody and more complicated rhythms? So they played Bach for a bunch of sleeping newborns and monitored the babies’ brains to see if they could predict the next note. What they found offers clues about whether melody and rhythm are hard-wired in the human brain or learned over time. We also get into what powers the eating habits of some snakes and chameleons, and insights into the role of sleep in problem-solving.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:05.9	Hey, shortwavers, Regina Barber here.
0:08.5	And Rachel Carlson.
0:09.9	And today we have our biweekly science news roundup featuring the hosts of all things considered.
0:14.7	And today we have one of my favorite gamers, Juana Summers.
0:18.9	Hello.
0:19.7	Excited to be here.
0:22.1	So I heard y'all that we were talking about babies listening to Bach to see if they can perceive rhythm and melody just after birth.
0:26.5	Yep. Plus a finding that could tell us more about why reptiles feed on very different
0:31.0	timescales compared to humans. And the old adage, sleep on it may actually help you solve a problem.
0:39.4	All that on this episode of Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.
0:51.6	Okay, Wana, where do you want us to start?
0:53.9	Okay, I want to start off with music and babies, Rachel.
0:57.0	Yeah, okay. So scientists know that even as babies, we can track basic rhythm like this.
1:03.0	But they didn't know how primed our youngest minds were to perceive melody or more complicated rhythms like this.
1:11.5	All the way to complicated drum solos.
1:14.0	Interesting. Okay. So how did scientists test this?
1:16.8	In a study out this week in PLOS biology, scientists played piano music by Bach to sleepy newborn
1:22.4	babies. And the babies were hooked up to these EEG machines to see how well their little brains predicted rhythm or the melody.
1:31.6	Love this, so what did they find?
1:34.1	They were looking for brain signals that show the babies were predicting the next note.
1:38.1	In adults, our brains predict both the rhythm and the melody of the next note.
	...

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