摘要：Music and language are two of the most prominent human features. Both systems rely, among others, on the human cognitive ability for rhythm (Kotz & Schwartze, 2010; Patel, 2003, 2006), intended aspatterning over time(McAuley, 2010). It is however unclear: (i) when and how humans evolved rhythmic abilities, (ii) whether these were direct results of pressures for language or music, or simply by-products of other evolutionary processes (Patel, 2010), and (iii) the degree of overlap between rhythm in language and music cognition (Cason & Schön, 2012). At the same time, rhythm and synchronization are truly cross-disciplinary concepts, broadly employed not only in musicology and linguistics, but also in cognitive psychology, biology, and physics (Cummins, 2012; Greenfield & Roizen, 1993; Patel & Daniele, 2003; Pikovsky, Rosenblum, & Kurths, 2003; Strogatz & Stewart, 1993; Winfree, 1986). This often creates conflicts between definitions and assumptions from different disciplines (Cummins, 2012). In this talk, I present my ongoing work, trying to unveil the evolutionary bases of time patterning, and to build a unifying, theoretical framework for rhythm, transcending specific disciplines. I argue how a broad comparative approach, comparing different animal species (including humans), can inform us on the evolutionary origins of the cognitive ability to process rhythm (Fitch, 2012; Honing et al., 2012; Ravignani et al., 2013). I describe three parallel and complementary lines of research to understand the origins of rhythm. First, I introduce a theoretical framework providing a common platform for the interdisciplinary study of rhythm in music and language (Ravignani, Bowling, & Kirby, in press). The framework I propose, the “hierarchy of coupled oscillations”, attempts to connect human music, dance and phonology on one side, to occurrences of synchronization and chorusing in non-human animals (as in fireflies or crickets) on the other side (Hagen & Bryant, 2003; Hagen & Hammerstein, 2009). Second, I present some preliminary results on group synchronization in an agent-based model of chorusing, aimed at investigating rhythmic abilities in pre-musical hominids (Merker, Madison, & Eckerdal, 2009). In particular, I suggest how rhythmic complexity can emerge from simple, local interactions. This bottom-up approach is particularly useful in finding out which rhythmic features can in principle exist without centralized processing (Ravignani, 2014). In parallel, using a top-down approach, I describe some experimental pilot work investigating the cognitive abilities for rhythm in our closest living relatives: the chimpanzees. Chimpanzees naturally “drum” in the wild (Arcadi, Robert, & Boesch, 1998). Building on this natural predisposition, I describe the development and pilot testing of a new tool to sonify apes’ movements (Ravignani et al., 2013). Ongoing experiments with this “Prima-Drum” will serve to: (i) investigate the temporal nature of drumming patterns in chimpanzees, (ii) compare them to those found in music and language, and (iii) ascertain chimpanzees’ abilities in discriminating and copying human-produced rhythms (as described in phonology and music theory research).
