In an experiment, researchers played a series of musical intervals -- two-note sequences -- to a large, diverse group of six-month-old babies  They found that the babies paid significantly more attention when the intervals were perfect octaves, fifths, or fourths than otherwise  These intervals are prevalent in the musical systems of most cultures around the world
Thus, humans probably have a biological predisposition to pay more attention to those intervals than to others
None of the babies in the experiment had previous exposure to music from any culture.