Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello!
For my research for my science fair project on music's affect on heart rate, I need to perform an interview.

Here are a few questions I have:
-Have you done or know anything about any experiments or investigations concerning music's affect on heart rate?

-If so, did the personal experience give you any addition insight about music and heart rate? Please share.

-From personal knowledge or experience, what kind of things affect or change heart rate? (besides exercise)

Thank you!

Hi,

That sounds like a very interesting project! Although I haven't any experience in this field, I'll answer your questions but also try to find someone with direct experience as well.

-Have you done or know anything about any experiments or investigations concerning music's affect on heart rate? I haven't performed any experiments of this nature but I searched on Google a little bit and found alot of people have looked into how music affects our heart rate.

-If so, did the personal experience give you any addition insight about music and heart rate? Please share.

-From personal knowledge or experience, what kind of things affect or change heart rate? (besides exercise)
That's right, exercise will affect the heart rate. Any activity that strains the body a little bit, like folding laundry, washing the care, cleaning the house and other chores. I know there are some drugs used in hospitals and surgery that can change the heart rate (chronotropes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronotropic)

Hi there,

I am a physiologist, and have experience with research regarding heart rate. Here are my answers to your questions:

1. Have you done or know anything about any experiments or investigations concerning music's affect on heart rate?

I have not performed these experiments myself, but I know a couple scientists who have. A professor at UC Irvine did a study looking at the effect of heavy metal music on heart rate. He put heart rate monitors on the members of a heavy metal band during their performances. His results are not published yet.

I also had college students in my physiology class examine the effects of different types of music on the heart rate of the listener during exercise. They thought that listening to music you like might reduce your heart rate during exercise. Instead, they found that certain types of music increased your heart rate, and others tended to reduce it, regardless of your taste in music.

2. If so, did the personal experience give you any addition insight about music and heart rate? Please share.

The studies I mentioned above did give me some insight about music and heart rate. Music can definitely influence your heart rate in many different situations, and often in ways opposite from what you would expect!

3. From personal knowledge or experience, what kind of things affect or change heart rate? (besides exercise)

Actually, many things can affect heart rate. My graduate advisor looked at the heart rate of surfers, and found that their heart rates would max out whenever they were surfing a wave, no matter how big or small the wave was. This means it wasn't only about the level of exercise they were doing (because they were definitely working harder on the bigger waves!). It was about their level of excitement.

In the same study, she found that the surfers' heart rates went up when they were in the parking lot, just LOOKING at some huge waves, before they started surfing. So, your level of excitement and anticipation can certainly affect your heart rate!

Another condition that affects heart rate is submergence in water. This is called the dive response. (Try looking up "dive response" in a search engine to learn more.) Basically, when a mammal is submerged underwater, its heart rate tends to decrease. This is really pronounced in marine mammals, to the point that dolphins have really slow heart rates even when they are exercising underwater! But humans also have a dive response. In fact, you can often measure a decrease in a person's heart rate when he/she just puts his/her face in water. (I did this with my physiology students.)

I hope this helps you. Best of luck with your study!

Heather

This is really great and I find this site useful. Exercising everyday and eating the proper amount of foods are the best ways for us to have a healthy body and live happy. When we exercise, our heart beats are getting faster.