Your pupil doesn't miss a beat

Our pupils reveal that even when not paying attention, we are musical. This has been revealed by research conducted by Atser Damsma and Hedderik van Rijn, researchers at the department of Psychology. They discovered that our pupils react to changes in the beat, even when we are not consciously listening to the music. Damsma and Van Rijn asked test subjects to perform a task and simultaneously listen to drum beats. When a major beat was skipped, the pupils became larger.

More information

• Atser Damsma
• Damsma en Van Rijn publication
• Science Magazine news item
• Je pupillen zijn muzikaler dan je denkt [Your pupils are more musical than you think]

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