Scientists say that when very low frequency (VLF) sound was introduced during a live electronic music event, concertgoers moved more even though they couldn’t hear the frequencies. “This is real world – real electronic music dance concert – confirmation that bass really makes people dance more, and it’s not just something that comes from our conscious awareness,” said Dr Daniel Cameron, neuroscientist and first author of work from McMaster University in Canada. Cameron and his colleagues note that previous studies have suggested that dance-inducing music has more low-frequency sound and that low voices help people move in time to the music. However, it was not clear that this effect of low frequencies would be visible in the real world or when such sounds are not consciously detectable. Writing in the journal Current Biology, the team reports how they set up an electronic music concert by Canadian duo Orphx at McMaster and asked attendees to wear headbands before turning specialized VLF speakers on and off every 2.5 minutes during the 55 minutes. implementation. Results from 43 participants who agreed to wear a headband revealed that they moved 11.8% more, on average, when the VLF speakers were on. Cameron noted that this meant people danced more vigorously or with more exaggerated movements. At the end of the concert, 51 attendees filled out a questionnaire asking if they could feel the music in their bodies and if the bodily sensations affected their compulsion to move. The results indicate that concertgoers experienced bodily sensations associated with the music, but that these sensations were not rated as stronger than in similar concerts – settings where VLF loudspeakers are not typically used. The team then conducted a further experiment in which 17 subjects were asked to discriminate between a pair of clips from the concert that were identical and a pair that differed only in the presence or absence of very low frequencies. Results from 72 such trials revealed that participants did no better than chance at distinguishing the pairs. Cameron said he supported the conclusion that those attending the concert were not consciously aware of the influence of the VLF. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. “We would lose all ecological validity if we just cranked the starter, the speakers go bonkers and anyone can say ‘oh, something different is really going on here,’” he said. “We didn’t want them to know what we were doing.” The team says it’s possible that VLFs are picked up by mechanoreceptors in the skin and body, as well as the vestibular system in the inner ear, which is linked to the sense of balance. Dr Anne Keitel, a lecturer in cognitive neuroscience at the University of Dundee who was not involved in the study, said that while the very low frequencies did not have a huge effect on the participants’ movements, the effect appeared to be highly consistent between individuals. A future area of research, he said, would be to investigate whether such sounds can be measured in people’s brain activity, shedding light on how they are perceived and why they affect people’s movements. Keitel added that studies “in the wild” are extremely rare but important because they help clarify whether laboratory findings are relevant to real life. “The study does a great job of tracking people’s movements during a real concert, and the questionnaires showed that the participants thoroughly enjoyed themselves during the experience – something that usually doesn’t happen in the lab,” he said.
