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About / Future plans
Testing of species-specific music for cats will begin at the University of Wisconsin in the fall semester of 2010.
We look forward to bringing species-specific music to more species every year. Through the project centered at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. we plan to research, analyze, compose, record, and offer CDs for enrichment for 2-3 new species every year. In addition, our commercial ventures will begin providing music for dogs and horses.
The music for dogs will be introduced breed by breed. The domestic cat is relatively consistent in size and vocalizations, the Siamese and Persians being the breeds with exceptional vocalization characteristics. Dogs, however, vary greatly in size and sound, and each breed group will need to have its own music.
We expect that the fetal sonic environment (the sounds heard by the developing foal in the womb that are imprinted on the emotional brain structures) will provide an important component to the music for horses. It is possible that the rhythmic consistency necessary for equine locomotion owes much to the calibration that the deep brain structures received from months of hearing the mother’s heartbeat. Walking, trotting, cantering, and galloping all require a finely tuned sense of rhythm. Testing will show when the developing fetus is able to hear and should indicate the role the mother’s heartbeat plays in calibrating this sense of rhythm in utero.
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