Changes in Temporal Cues Elicit Rhythmic Discrimination in Rats (Rattus norvegicus)

Humans are capable of recognizing the temporal organization of a rhythm by perceiving its metrical structure even when it is evoked only by temporal alterations. There is also plenty of data suggesting that several animal species can track different rhythmic cues. However, there is no clear evidence that nonhuman animals can extract metrical information from an auditory rhythm. To explore this issue, we familiarized rats (Rattus norvegicus) to auditory rhythmic sequences. We then tested them with novel sequences that presented temporal variations at the metrical, grouping, or tone duration level. We observed that the animals responded differently to the familiar versus the novel sequences, suggesting that temporal alterations are sufficient for the animals to discriminate between auditory rhythmic sequences. Likewise, the use of temporal accents could be relevant to provide metrical information, although it is still an open issue the extent to which the animals are able to induce meter from rhythmic sequences.