Data show that macaques do not synchronize to a beat

Rajendran et al. report experiments training two macaques to tap rhythmically to human music. While the data are interesting and relevant to the study of musicality across species, we disagree with the authors’ interpretation that “macaques can synchronize to a subjective beat in real music”. In other species, successful beat synchronization is demonstrated by alignment to the downbeat. The macaques do not meet this criterion, nor do they show evidence of successful phase-shifting. The claim that “macaques can synchronize to a subjective beat in real music” is thus not supported by the data.