Were N Sync actually in sync all along?

Research from the Sahlgrenska Academy at Gothenburg University in Sweden has recently revealed an interesting fact about choral singers – not only do their heartbeats slow down significantly as they are singing (something which is very beneficial to heart health), but their heartbeats actually synchronize. The scientists have reasoned that the breathing techniques involved in singing mirror those of yoga, and the results are very similar.

Since breathing in and out has such a massive affect on our body, controlling what scientists refer to as “fight or flight”, it makes sense that slowing the breathing down would have a relaxing effect on the sympathetic nervous system, and the researchers have posited that in singing, this is exactly what happens.

The study took eighteen male and female volunteers and had them hum a tone, breathing when they had to, sing a hymn or sing a mantra breathing only between phrases. Each participant’s heartbeat was monitored during the experiment, and the results were illuminating. Dr Bjorn Vickhoff from the University commented “So when you are singing, you are singing on the air when you are exhaling so the heart rate would go down. And between the phrases you have to inhale and the pulse will go up. If this is so then heart rate would follow the structure of the song or the phrases, and this is what we measured and this is what we confirmed”.

The goal of the study was to find out if these methods could be useful in lowering the risk of disease or in some form of medical rehabilitation, and from the sounds of it the findings will prove important on our understanding of why music, and the performance of music makes us feel so good. [via Digital Journal]