New research from the University of Amsterdam and HUN-REN Research Centre for Natural Sciences (TTK) reveals that newborn babies have the ability to hear beats in music. This study challenges the previous belief that beat recognition in newborns is solely due to their statistical learning ability, showing that beat perception is a separate cognitive mechanism that is present at birth. The findings, published in the academic journal Cognition, suggest that beat perception is an innate skill in newborns.
