Yes, you’ve got rhythm … so bring a tingle to your spine by playing a musical game

Even if you cannot play an instrument, a game such as Sentris, which allows you to bring music to life, can be magical

A delightful new puzzle game, Sentris, was released on Steam last month. Beautiful and engrossing, it leads the player through increasingly complex musical levels, in which you have to place blocks in the correct point in a spinning circle to add in different loops and instruments to an electronic track. The game is deeply enjoyable, tapping into one of the deepest human instincts: the sense of rhythm.

Newborn babies have a sense of rhythm. Only days after birth, scans can detect the brain anticipating a missing downbeat, or noticing the rhythm "stumble". There's still debate about whether animals share this trait but dance, drumming and music are common across human cultures. There's something in us that just likes it. Even without the skills to play an instrument, there's a satisfaction to a game that allows you to control music, to bring it to life, even to feel that you're playing it.

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