Link #111: Music Affects Your Heartbeats!

Oct 5, 2015

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Link #111: Music Affects Your Heartbeats!

Music_and_Heart — Music of Love (Free photobank www.tOrange.us) / ©www.tOrange.us. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

If you read our last article, you already know that you should favour your right ear to understand words and language better because your left ear is better attuned to music. We gave the reason for this too. The left side of your brain is connected to your right ear and is better capable of handling words or analytics. On the other hand, the right side of your brain is better capable of handling visual or artistic elements.

However, does this mean that the left side of your brain is more important than the right side? It certainly does not! For example, did you know that the music you listen to affects the way your heart beats? Since the right side of your brain is better attuned to artistic things like music, this shows that it is important.

Does Music Really Affect the Way a Heart Beats?

Research has proven that the music you’re listening to will have an impact on your heartbeat. In fact, research in this field is actually growing because music can both increase and decrease the rate at which a person’s heart beats.

One study consisted of 24 volunteers being made to hear different snatches of music while their body’s reactions were recorded. Similarly, different hospitals have also noticed differences in heartbeats and blood pressure levels among people who listen to music every day and people who don’t.

Typically, it’s been discovered that fast paced music such as rap or rock will result in a marked increase in the rate at which the listener’s heart is beating. In contrast, relaxing music such as western classical and ambient sound actually works to reduce the heartbeat of an individual.

Another aspect of this is that if you have any kind of musical training, then your reactions to music will be stronger. So, if you are a band member, then you can be sure that rock and roll will make you excited!

Why Does Music Change the Way Your Heart Beats?

brain — Author: OpenClipartVectors, PD-Art.

The big question is why music has such a strong impact on your heartbeat. The answer is not completely clear to the researchers but they have speculated on it. Most researchers say that the reason why music can impact the way your heart beats is that it affects the brain and body’s physiological functions at a subconscious level.

The reasoning could be related to how the music travels through the human body. Music actually goes through multiple transitions in your head. It begins with your middle ear and eardrums. The vibration of eardrums causes mechanical energy which is converted to electrical energy by the brain, i.e., electrical pulses.

These pulses travel to the part of your brain that is responsible for analysing the information. After this, the information is taken to the part of your brain responsible for emotional reactions, creativity, innovation and arousal.

This information then travels to the part of the brain that is responsible for bodily reactions such as breathing, heartbeat, temperature and blood pressure. At any of these points or all of them, the music you listen to can have an impact on your body. The reason for this is that it isn’t only your heartbeat that it has an impact on, but other things like breathing too.