Rats bop their heads to music just like humans

Interesting study, very bad title.

As the proud owner of rats in the past, visually in the video their head movements are indistinguishable from the "Roomba" like movement of searching for interesting scents. Yes it will be rhythmic because you must move your nose up and down while you are scanning.

At the same time, the article states that head movement was measured via accelerometer and video analysis, I suppose to find some correlation between music and "rhythmicity".

I buy the premise that rats can anticipate a beat and will react accordingly, but "just like humans" is a stretch. Humans' conscious interaction with music is emotional, whereas rats may be responding to perceived threat or physical disturbance. While rats are "smart", there's no evidence they respond to this stimulus beyond how we would respond to a rhythmic thunderstorm.

That being said, the neural mechanisms of temporal perception, anticipation, and repetition are interesting and worthwhile.

Why? Humans can make music, so it would make sense for music to develop. If this came up even earlier, what was it's purpose? Are rats secretly making music somewhere?

Why? Humans can make music. If this came up before humans, what was it's purpose? Are rats secretly making music somewhere?

I’m quite disappointed to not find any videos of rats bopping their heads in the article.