Rhythm and Reward: when the musical pleasure improves rhythmic abilities

Music is one of the most enjoyable activities of humans’ life, just as the skills associated with it have been present in human life since time immemorial or almost forever. 121 young adults, aged 18 to 35, were asked to complete a questionnaire to assess their musical hedonia and rhythmic tasks to investigate their skills in rhythmic production, perception and memory. The purpose of the research was to assess whether higher hedonic values predicted better results in rhythmic abilities. The interaction between musical hedonia and rhythmic abilities showed that higher hedonic values predict better accuracy in rhythmic abilities, specifically higher musical hedonia predict better rhythmic production, better rhythmic perception, but it did not predict better rhythmic memory. Future studies could focus on evaluating the same hypotheses in different age groups, on analyzing if the interaction between musical hedonia and rhythmic abilities is gender-related or related to the ethnicity, using different type of music (eastern and western). It would be also important to study if the interaction show the same result with people with a Learning Disability as dyslexia. Key words: music, pleasure, musical hedonia and rhythmic abilities