进化音乐学的现状及挑战

音乐才能的起源至今成谜,自达尔文提出人类音乐才能可能经由进化起源以来,越来越多的科学家开始从生物学的视角审视之,随即交叉学科"生物音乐学"应运而生。"进化音乐学"作为生物音乐学的一个分枝,主要研究音乐才能的遗传基础、跨物种现象和进化意义等问题。近年来该领域虽发展迅速,然而上述问题几乎悉数未解。本文提出:先将音乐才能解构为必需的最小功能单元,然后分别构建各功能单元的动物模型,再以动物模型对各功能单元进行分子遗传学研究,并最终确定音乐才能的进化路线。

Current situations and challenges of evolutionary musicology

The origin of musicality has puzzled scientists and still puzzles.Since Darwin proposed that music must be a biological adaptation,more and more researchers come to study musicality from a biological perspective.This leads to the rise of an interdiscipline named biomusicology.Evolutionary musicology,as a branch of biomusicology,focuses on the genetic basis,cross-species characterisation and evolutionary significance of musicality.Although experiencing dramatic development over the last decades,most aspects of this field remain largely unknown.Here we propose a conceptual framework for addressing the origin of musicality.Firstly,musicality is to be deconstructed into minimal functional units.Then animal models are to be used to investigate the genetic bases.Finally the evolutionary route is to be reconstructed by systematically combining all the units.