Singing Together Fosters Harmonious Hearts

When choir members sing together, their heartbeats become synchronized, researchers have found. The new study included 15 members of a high school choir whose heart rates were monitored while they performed three different choral exercises: monotone humming, singing a hymn and chanting a slow mantra. The music's melody and structure had a direct impact on the hearts of individual choir members. Singing in unison caused a synchronizing effect that led to singers' heart rates rising and falling at the same time, according to the investigators from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. The findings were published in the current online edition of the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_138502.html