Music even makes you blink to the beat

"Our eyes—which we usually think of as purely visual organs—spontaneously dance to the rhythm of what we hear, says study co-author Du Yi, a cognitive neuroscientist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. Using a high-speed eye-tracking system, Du and her team were stunned to discover nonmusicians instinctively blinking in sync with the beat structure of Bach chorales."

"Synchronized blinking faded when the researchers sped up the Bach chorales to 120 beats per minute. It also disappeared when the study's participants were asked to detect a red dot on a screen, implying that active listening is required. It isn't that the music loses its magic when we're distracted but rather that the brain reallocates its rhythmic resources to whatever we are focusing on most."

"Music activates the motor areas of the brain. Even if we're just sitting still—and not bopping our heads, tapping our feet or dancing—there can often be this sense of motion. People tend to synchronize their steps to the beat."

Research published in PLOS Biology demonstrates that people spontaneously blink in time with musical beats, particularly with structured compositions like Bach chorales. Using high-speed eye-tracking technology, scientists discovered that nonmusicians instinctively synchronize their blinking to beat structures, though not on every single beat. This synchronized blinking effect diminishes when music tempo increases to 120 beats per minute or when listeners focus on unrelated visual tasks like detecting dots on screens. The phenomenon requires active listening and reflects how the brain allocates rhythmic resources. Music activates motor areas of the brain, creating a sense of motion even when people remain physically still, explaining why individuals naturally synchronize movements to musical rhythms.

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