Summary made by Quivr/GPT-4

This document is a scientific review that explores the concept of rhythmic entrainment, which is the ability of groups of individuals to synchronize their behavior with precision in real time. This ability is considered a key component of our musicality. The document discusses the biological and evolutionary origins of this capacity, suggesting that it is a distinctive trait of our species, given its scarcity in other species close to us in the evolutionary tree.

The authors highlight that the mechanisms behind rhythmic entrainment are diverse and not of a single kind, suggesting that they deserve close scrutiny. They also discuss the potential implications of these findings for understanding our own synchronizing capacity.

The document also discusses the concept of ‘isochrony’, which is the constancy of onset to onset intervals during a bout of sustained free-running activity. This concept is often used by scientists to evaluate behavioral rhythms. The authors suggest that high isochrony allows an animal to predict the onset of a neighbor’s next signal, which is essential for achieving precise levels of rhythm coordination.

The authors also discuss the role of rhythmic entrainment in various behaviors that predate conversational semantic, syntactic language as practiced by modern humans. They suggest that the transition to life in open habitats and the adoption of bipedal locomotion, which requires complex rhythm coordination between gait and breathing, could be a possible juncture for the development of rhythmic entrainment.

The document also discusses the role of learned and memorized pattern content in human rhythmic synchrony. The authors suggest that this not only generates rhythmic complexity but also makes a given instance of human rhythmic synchrony repeatable ‘at will’, unless the performers decide otherwise.

In conclusion, the document suggests that our capacity for rhythmic entrainment may have predated the origins of music in the evolution of our behavioral traits. The authors also suggest that the cognitive capacity to extract the elementary beat from complex rhythmic structures may be shared by other encephalized animals, whether they are entraining species or not.