Choir singers' heartbeats synchronize

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBLwsy4FP78 When some choirs sing, the individuals’ heart rates quickly synchronize. Researchers from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden monitored the pulse of high school choir singers and also found that when the choir began to sing, their unified voices caused their heart rates to slow. "When you sing the phrases, it is a form… READ THE REST

Yes, the BBC also used this “Synchronize Their Heartbeats” phrase in their headline. When you read the content, it’s far less exciting. Heartbeats do not synchronize - that would really be news - and it lured me to click to the article. Rather, heart RATES go up and down together (nor do the absolute rates match). This is attributed to the known fact that heart rate changes during in-breaths (faster) and out-breaths (slower). To me it looks like the only news here is that choir members inhale and exhale together.

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Yes, the “research” quoted is on such a limited scale it’s pretty much useless except as a foundation from which to begin to develop a hypothesis.

Last weekend in Latvia the final concert of the Latvian National Song and Dance Festival took place, with a massed choir of 14,000 voices, attended by an audience of over 40,000 listeners. After the 6 hour concert many choristers and listeners stayed for a communal sing-along that lasted until 4am. I wonder how many synchronised…

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