Human heartbeats and breathing rhythms 'follow' the intensity of a piece of music, a new Italian study has found.
The research carried out by a Pavia University team led by cardiologist Luciano Bernardi provided further evidence that listening to music could be a useful therapeutic activity and help with rehabilitation in patients with cardiovascular problems.
The team played extracts from works such as Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Verdi's La Traviata as well as an aria from Puccini's Turandot to 24 healthy test subjects, 12 of whom were professional musicians, and measured the rhythms of their breathing, blood pressure, flow of arterial blood in the brain and heartbeat.
The researchers discovered that the test subjects' hearts and lungs synchronised with the music: with every crescendo, their blood pressure, breathing rhythms and heartbeats increased, while when the intensity of the music dropped this had the opposite effect.
''Music generates a continuous, dynamic, and to a certain extent predictable change on the cardiovascular system,'' said Bernardi.
''It's not just emotions being aroused by the music that influences the cardiovascular changes, but also, inversely, the cardiovascular changes brought about by the music can be the foundation arousing new emotions,'' he said.
The research has been published in the scientific periodical Circulation.
