Rats cannot resist groovy beats of Michael Jackson: study

Researchers found rats enjoy music and bop their heads similar to humans on music beats, as per Guardian.

Associate Professor Hirokazu Takahashi in the Tokyo Univerity studied music's effects on brain activity and why it evokes emotion.

With the help of his research team, they fitted ten rats and 20 humans with accelerometers to monitor head movement while listening to songs, including Lady Gaga's Born This Way, Michael Jackson's Beat It, and Maroon 5's Sugar. Queen's Another One Bites the Dust.

"Our results suggest that the optimal tempo for beat synchronization depends on the time constant in the brain," Takahashi said. "This demonstrates that the animal brain can be useful in elucidating the perceptual mechanisms of music."

The study is reportedly the first to give evidence that rats, like humans, have an innate sense of rhythm.

More importantly, the rats were not trained or had prior exposure to music, as per the report findings.