New research on rhythm: How did our brains help us row in sync?

“When we talk about a sense of rhythm, many people primarily think of music, poetry, or dance. But rhythm is much more than that,” says Sandra Solli.

She is a researcher at the University of Oslo's RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion.

In a discussion thread Solli came across on the website Reddit, someone asked whether it is possible to acquire a sense of rhythm if you do not already have one. Another person replied: 'Can you walk without tripping over your own feet? Then you have rhythm.'

“Rhythm is everywhere in our surroundings, such as in the day–night cycle, the tides, and the seasons. We humans are also rhythmic by nature, whether we are walking, breathing, or our hearts are beating. Rhythm helps us in more ways than many people realise,” she says.

Solli has investigated how our brains use rhythm and temporal patterns to form expectations about what is going to happen.

The brain is an expectation machine

Our brains are not only concerned about what is happening around us and within us. They are also deeply concerned about what is about to happen.

That is why some researchers call the brain a prediction machine.

It does not passively receive sensory input, but creates internal models that anticipate what information will come from the outside world.

These mechanisms are fundamental to our ability to be prepared and make good decisions.

We clap before the beat arrives

A sense of rhythm is one of the abilities that helps us form these kinds of expectations.

Researchers have observed this by measuring electrical activity in the brain while people listen to music. The brainwaves follow the same tempo as the music.

“We might assume that brain activity simply reacts to the tones in the music once we hear them. But research suggests that it's not that simple. What matters is the expectation of the next beat,” the researcher says.

The brain’s response is prepared just before the beat arrives. In other words, we are always slightly ahead – something that can be seen, for example, when we clap along with music, Solli explains.

“We actually clap a few tenths of a second before the beat,” she says.

In this way, the brain uses rhythms in our surroundings to prepare for what will happen in the future. According to Solli, this enables us to process events more quickly and act more efficiently.

The brain is on alert

Earlier research has suggested that we are able to extract more information from an event that occurs at an expected time than from one that occurs unexpectedly.

If you hear a faint sound, for example, you will hear it better if you expect it to be there.

Solli’s research supports these findings.

“Expected sounds may be easier to perceive because the brain is already on alert. If we don't expect to hear anything, we are less prepared, and we may be more likely to miss subtleties or faint sounds,” she says.

Previous research has mostly focused on perfectly regular rhythms, such as a metronome or a ticking clock.

Solli has investigated whether the same brain mechanisms come into play in more complex rhythms made up of varying time intervals.

Managed to stay in sync

Solli and her colleagues asked study participants to listen to regular rhythms, rhythms with gradually changing tempos, and unpredictable rhythmic patterns.

The findings suggest that regular rhythms have a particularly strong effect. But uneven rhythms can also prepare our brains – if the irregular patterns can be learned.

“Think, for instance, of the Norwegian rowing sessions during the World Cup. The rowing tempo kept increasing, yet we still managed to do it in sync,” she says.

Could improve our understanding of autism and ADHD

Solli points out that the brain uses several mechanisms to prepare for upcoming events. Expectations created by the rhythms around us are one of them.

“When we need to focus our attention at specific moments, a regular rhythm is extremely helpful, perhaps because brainwaves synchronise with the rhythm. At the same time, we're now seeing that irregular rhythms can benefit us too, but that the brain likely relies on partly other mechanisms in those cases,” she says.

She believes the research takes current rhythm research a step further and may eventually contribute to a better understanding of autism, ADHD, schizophrenia, and other conditions.

“Several neurodevelopmental disorders and mental health conditions are associated with poorly calibrated expectations in the brain. More robust research models are important both for understanding what happens in the brain in such cases and for developing targeted interventions,” she says.

Reference:

Solli, S. Rhythm-Based Temporal Expectation: Delineating the Roles of Predictability and Periodicity, Doctoral dissertation at the University of Oslo, 2026. (About the dissertation)

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