Do bumble bees sense rhythmic patterns?

Zeng et al. (2026, Science) reported an intriguing study of rhythmic pattern discrimination in bumble bees (Bombus terrestris). However, the claim that “[bumble bees] form robust abstract rhythm representations” may be somewhat premature.

Overall, the study is fascinating: bees learned to discriminate flashing temporal patterns and appeared to generalize across tempi and sensory modalities. But a key question is whether this shows rhythm abstraction, or whether simpler temporal cues could explain the results.

A defining feature of rhythm cognition is tempo invariance: recognizing a temporal pattern when all its intervals are proportionally stretched or compressed. In Zeng et al.’s tempo-generalization experiment, however, flash durations varied while the silent gaps reportedly remained fixed at 100 ms. This means the test stimuli were not true proportional transformations of the training stimuli. Instead, they combined changing flash durations with fixed inter-flash gaps. That weakens the interpretation that bees recognized an abstract rhythmic relation.

There is also a simpler possible strategy. Bees may not have encoded the full pattern, but instead relied on local cues such as immediate element repetition or matching familiar temporal fragments such as a particular flash-plus-gap combination. Such strategies would still be cognitively interesting, but they are not the same as forming a global abstract rhythm representation.

The authors also suggest their findings challenge the hypothesis that vocal learning and flexible rhythm perception are linked. But that hypothesis concerns advantages for auditory rhythm processing in vocal-learning species; visual and vibrational discrimination in bees does not directly test it.

Bumble bees may indeed have impressive temporal abilities. But to demonstrate rhythm abstraction, future experiments should use proportionally scaled rhythms, including gaps, and rule out local-cue strategies. For now, rhythm abstraction in bumble bees remains an exciting possibility — but not yet a settled conclusion.

(For more see news article from Science, Zeng et al.  study, and Comment.)

References

Zeng, Z., Barron, A. B., Peng, F., & Solvi, C. (2026). Flexible, abstract rhythm perception in bumble bees. Science, 392(6793), 93–95. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adz2894

Ning, Z.-Y., ten Cate, C., Patel, A. D., & Honing, H. (2026). Rhythm Abstraction in Bumble Bees Remains Inconclusive. PsyArXiv preprint. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/m7rph_v2

Isn't musicality more than rhythm?

Last month, we organized a follow-up to the 2014 Lorentz Workshop on Musicality in Leiden, The Netherlands. Twelve years later, it felt both exciting and meaningful to return to Leiden with a renewed focus: spectral percepts. 

While rhythm cognition has received substantial attention over the past decade, key perceptual dimensions of melodic cognition—especially timbre and pitch—remain comparatively underexplored. Many comparative studies still rely on simplified stimuli, such as pure tones, which may limit our understanding of how non-human animals perceive melodic structure. Recent findings suggest that pitch and timbre do not map uniformly across species, inviting us to rethink how these percepts are studied. 

We therefore deliberately shifted attention away from rhythm perception and production toward the perceptual and affective dimensions of melody, harmony, and timbre. In doing so, we revisited Darwin’s idea that animals may not only perceive melodies, but may also take pleasure in them (see workshop proposal). 

What made this workshop especially rewarding was the remarkable diversity of backgrounds and expertise in the room. Researchers from neurobiology, psychology, ethnomusicology, musicology, and evolutionary theory came together to examine the evolutionary and perceptual roles of pitch, timbre, and consonance. This breadth of perspectives allowed us to explore how these percepts vary across species, cultures, and contexts in ways no single discipline could address alone. 

By bringing together such a broad and inspiring group of researchers, the workshop generated new insights, strengthened interdisciplinary collaborations, and laid the groundwork for a more coherent framework on the evolution and cognition of musicality. 

A special issue is planned for Spring 2027, in which we will summarize the workshop’s findings, develop new research ideas, and outline a future agenda for musicality research. 

Photo credits: (cc) 2026 Bas Cornelissen and Lorentz Center.