Okay, this is pretty cool. It looks like heading to the symphony could leave you perfectly synchronized with other attendees in your heart rate, breathing rate, and, of course, your movements. Check it out.
The symphony would be a great idea for a date, too, if you ask me. Think about it: How often are you and your significant other out of sync, especially on date night? It happens to the best of us. Why not use the symphony to get back in rhythm? And, I mean, what a romantic setting, aye?
Before I get too off topic, here's what we're looking at when we say the music synchronizes its audience members:
Professor Wolfgang Tschacher and his colleagues at the University of Bern in Switzerland observed 132 people whilst they listened to a string quintet...whilst monitoring them in several ways.
Participants' movement was tracked with overhead cameras and their physical responses with wearable sensors. They were also asked to fill out a questionnaire about their personality and mood.
The authors observed significant synchronization between audience members for movement, heart rate, breathing rate, and the electrical conductivity of skin (which indicates arousal of the sympathetic nervous system). The greatest level of synchronization was seen in the breathing rate.
So we kind of assumed this about music in general, the synchronization of movement at least, but with this more sophisticated style, the tunes actually get your heart and lungs on the same rhythm as well — and that is just wild; I never would've thought that.
The three pieces used in the study were Beethoven's "Op. 104 in C minor," Brett Dean's "Epitaphs," and Brahms' "Op. 111 in G major," which I am listening to now and it's just fabulous.
I love classical music and this is just another excuse to buy tickets to see the symphony.
If you're too busy killing brain cells listening to Cardi B or T-Swift, I'll do your entire body a favor and give you a jumpstart:
YOU'RE WELCOME.
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