Abstract
The standard approach to analyzing the evolution of rhythmic entrainment is to examine body movement to some external sound, like a metronome pulse or piece of music. I explore an alternative evolutionary model in which this capacity evolved by means of people entraining to one another through acts of mutual entrainment, primarily through group dancing.
Bio
Steven Brown is the director of the NeuroArts Lab and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He got his Ph.D. in the Department of Genetics and Development at Columbia University in New York, and did postdoctoral research at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, and Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. His research deals with the neural basis of the arts, including music, dance, acting, storytelling, cinema, drawing, aesthetics, and creativity. He is author of “The Unification of the Arts” (Oxford University Press) and co-editor of “The Origins of Music” (MIT Press) and “Music and Manipulation” (Berghahn Books).