ReviewPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2021
An ecological approach to measuring synchronization abilities across the animal kingdom.
Review in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- Extreme Rhythm Keeping in Long-Range Slow Click Communication of Sperm Whales.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2026Article
- Synchronous waving in a dotillid crab Ilyoplax pusilla: behavioral analyses using a robotic model.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2026Article
- Intracellularly coupled oscillators for synthetic biology.Nature communications · 2025Review
- Rhythmic coordination in rapid duets of little crakes: cooperative signalling without shared experience.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Sensorimotor synchronization to rhythm in an experienced sea lion rivals that of humans.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Bioelectrical synchronization ofRoyal Society open science · 2025Article
- Familiar Dog or Familiar Person: Who Do Pet Dogs Best Synchronize with?Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Rats synchronize predictively to metronomes.iScience · 2024Article
- TIBA: A web application for the visual analysis of temporal occurrences, interactions, and transitions of animal behavior.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
- Marmosets mutually compensate for differences in rhythms when coordinating vigilance.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
- Measuring rhythms of vocal interactions: a proof of principle in harbour seal pups.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Reliable estimation of internal oscillator properties from a novel, fast-paced tapping paradigm.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Statistical analysis reveals the onset of synchrony in sparse swarms ofJournal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2022Article
- Synchrony and rhythm interaction: from the brain to behavioural ecology.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Rhythm in dyadic interactions.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Review
- Rhythmic abilities in humans and non-human animals: a review and recommendations from a methodological perspective.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
In this perspective paper, we focus on the study of synchronization abilities across the animal kingdom. We propose an ecological approach to studying nonhuman animal synchronization that begins from observations about when, how and why an animal might synchronize spontaneously with natural environmental rhythms. We discuss what we consider to be the most important, but thus far largely understudied, temporal, physical, perceptual and motivational constraints that must be taken into account when designing experiments to test synchronization in nonhuman animals. First and foremost, different species are likely to be sensitive to and therefore capable of synchronizing at different timescales. We also argue that it is fruitful to consider the latent flexibility of animal synchronization. Finally, we discuss the importance of an animal's motivational state for showcasing synchronization abilities. We demonstrate that the likelihood that an animal can successfully synchronize with an environmental rhythm is context-dependent and suggest that the list of species capable of synchronization is likely to grow when tested with ecologically honest, species-tuned experiments. This article is part of the theme issue 'Synchrony and rhythm interaction: from the brain to behavioural ecology'.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.