• Posted May 12, 2025

Researchers Say Dance and Lullabies Are Learned, Not Hardwired

MONDAY, May 12, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Most parents know the soothing power of a lullaby like “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” But a new study suggests that singing to babies and even dancing may not be natural behaviors for everyone.

The study, published recently in the journal Current Biology, looked at the Northern Aché, an Indigenous group of about 800 people living in the South American country of Paraguay. 

Researchers found that members of this community do not dance or sing to help babies sleep, The Washington Post reported.

Arizona State University anthropologist Kim Hill, who has worked with the Northern Aché since the 1970s, said he never observed dancing or lullabies used with infants during decades of research. 

But the study notes that these behaviors may have developed after fieldwork ended in 2020.

The group does sing, but their songs are about hunting, recent events and ancestors, The Post said.

Northern Aché songs are never directed at babies, the researchers explained. The Northern Aché also don't dance, unlike the Southern Aché.

The study suggests a possible explanation: An early split between the Northern and Southern Aché, along with traumatic events, led to a loss of cultural traditions. 

Epidemics, forced removal of children and settlement on reservations caused what the researchers describe as “demographic turmoil.”

The loss of some skills and traditions is pretty clear. While ancestors knew how to make fire, today’s Northern Aché maintain existing flames instead of starting new ones.

The researchers argue that dance and lullabies are not automatic human behaviors but are passed down through cultural learning.

Humans must learn to dance and sing lullabies, and people then “invent, tweak and culturally transmit” such behaviors, the researchers concluded in the study.

“This doesn’t refute the possibility that humans have genetically evolved adaptations for dancing and responding to lullabies," said co-author Manvir Singh of the University of California at Davis.

“It does mean, however, that cultural transmission matters much more for maintaining those behaviors than many researchers, including myself, have suspected," he said in a news release.

More information

The American Academy of Pediatrics has more on how infants learn.

SOURCE: The Washington Post, May 10, 2025