The perception of musical pitches

A study published in Nature #451 on January 10 (abstract here; registration required for the full text) reveals that humans and bats are the only mammals that can distinguish such subtle pitch differences, on average (more than 10 per octave; I know musicians hear much more: here it is said that even an average humanoid can distinguish a C from a D).

Cats only perceive differences of about an octave (approximately), mice can perceive a third of an octave, and macaques can perceive a maximum of half an octave. In a press release, one of the authors, Itzhak Fried, says

It is indeed a mystery why such [frequency] in humans came to be. Why did we do this? Such selectivity is not needed for speech comprehension, but it may have a role in musical skill.

That it could play a role in musical ability seems obvious to me. The real question is why we developed this ability. Does it perhaps derive from the development of language, or did it arise for some other reason, and did all this favor the development of a complex language?

For those interested in these issues and who read English well, I recommend the very interesting blog Babel's Dawn.

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