Melodic, rhythmic and affective-musical imitation: the musical learning of babies through imitation and the mirror neuron system

Studies show that imitation integrates children's musical learning (DELALANDE, 2019; GORDON, 2015; SWANWICK, 2014). The discovery of mirror neurons proves that imitation is an action that integrates human learning and, therefore, should be investigated. Imitation is also an innate action of the baby (MELTZOFF; MOORE, 1995). The objective of this work was to investigate how babies' musical learning occurs through imitation and mirror neuron system based on scientific research. Bibliographic research was used as a method (LIMA; MIOTO, 2007) and data analysis was based on content analysis (BARDIN, 2009). This work is justified by the contribution of the understanding of how babies learn music. As a result, it was verified that babies develop musically through three types of imitation that are related to each other: melodic, affective-musical and rhythmic. From this study, we concluded that imitation occurs in a visual-motor auditory way and that during a musical interaction, the baby observes and relates movements and their sounds and transforms sensory perceptions (vision, touch and hearing) into motor representations (singing, intonation, movements, gestures and rhythms).