Re: Does music affect your pulse? and how does it affect it?

Dere Renee:

The pulse is an indirect sign of blood pressure and heart beating, which is controlled by autonomic nervous system including heart-sympathetic nerve from thoracic spinal cord and heart-parasympathetic nerve from brain stem, also named vagus nerve. The exciting of sympathetic nerve realeases a chemical Norepinephrine (Noradrenaline) which makes the heart beating faster while the exciting of parasympathetic nerve releases Acetylcholine which makes the heart slower. The autonomic nervous system is connected with other parts of CNS like cerebral cortex, limbic system and hypothalamus. The hearing of music is a higher neural activity related with learning and memory and its mechanism is not clear yet. However, the basic primary neural pathway is similar with that of sounds. External musical sound stimulates the receptor cell in the inner ear, and the electrical signals transmit in the brain by cochlear nerves, then by several relays, they excite the neurons in temporal lobe of cortex, which associate with other parts of the brain, send out signals to effectors and other systems of the body including autonomic nervous system. They may excite the sympathetic or parasympathetic nerves and make the heart beating faster or slower, and the pulse increased or decreased.

The effect of music on heart and blood pressure has been a favourite theme throughout history. In an early edition of the medical journal Lancet (Vincent and Thompson 1929) an attempt was made to discover the influence of listening to gramophone, and radio, music on blood pressure. The effects of music were influenced by how much the subjects appreciated music. Differing groups of musical competence respond in relation to volume, melody, rhythm, pitch and type of music. Interest in the music was an important factor influencing response. Melody produced the most apprent effects in the moderatly musical group. In general, listening to music was accompanied by a slight rise in blood pressure in the listener.

The physiology of music perception has been investigated by different methods such as neuropsychological testing, neuroimaging EEG, PET and Doppler ultrasound. Cardiovascular and endocrine responses to musical perception which have been studied largely show different changes depending on the situation of the subject (musical experience, handedness, gender, age) and the type of musical stimulus (sedative, harmony music or rhythmic rock music detailing in simple musical elements like intervals, chords, pitch, timbre; or complex musical structures). For example, In Evers^Ò research in 1999, They use Doppler sonography to investigate the music perception by musicians and non-musicians and found that pulse rates were significantly decreased in non-musicians during harmony perception. In another trial, heart rate was found to decrease after listening to classical and New Age music but not to change after listening to popular music (Mornhinweg 1992). The heart rate was found to increase if the music contains a fast beat (Harer 1982) or slow down if the music encourages physical and mental relaxation (Kneutgen 1970, Guzetta 1989). Although changes of heart rate and blood pressure as related to listening to music have been reported by many investigators, the complicated problem is still obscure and need deep investigation to clarify its mechanism.

Also, if it is not enough, you can find by yourself, the key word is music, brain, pulse, and you can find refernces on Medline, books on Amazon or Barnes & Noble, or some concise introduction of autonomic nervous system on Neurosicence for Kids.

References:
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Evers S, Dannert J, Rodding D, Rotter G, Ringelstein EB. The cerebral haemodynamics of music perception. A transcranial Doppler sonography study. Brain 1999 Jan;122 ( Pt 1):75-85.

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Mockel M, Rocker L, Stork T, Vollert J, Danne O, Eichstadt H, Muller R, Hochrein H. Immediate physiological responses of healthy volunteers to different types of music: cardiovascular, hormonal and mental changes. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol 1994;68(6):451-9.

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Vincent, S and Thompson ,J. The effects of music on the human blood pressure Lancet, 1929, 1, 534-537