The heart rates of people who sing in a choir quickly synchronise with one another. The discovery may offer clues to the health benefits of group singing.
Bj?rn Vickhoff at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, recruited 15 singers and asked them to undertake a number of joint singing tasks, from monotone humming to singing a meditative mantra or Christian hymn. Their vital signs were monitored throughout.
The team found that choral singing increased the amount by which an individual's heart rate varied. That might confer a potential health benefit because low variability in heart rate is known to be related to high blood pressure, says Vickhoff.
They also found that the singers' heart rates tended to fluctuate in synchrony when they were singing structured songs. This was linked to an effect known as respiratory sinus arrhythmia ? where your heart beat varies in synchrony with breathing, which is known from research on meditation to be soothing, says Vickhoff. So choir singing, he speculates, might be achieving calming effects in a similar way to breathing exercises in yoga. "But the medical effects need investigating further," he says.
Journal reference: Frontiers in Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience, DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00334
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