How can music affect your heart rate?

Can music affect the heart rate?

• Answer:

  Absolutely. "Music affects our senses" (I learned that on Bill Nye The Science Guy), and our senses are a channel for stimulus which effects a physiologic change in us. Additionally, the emotional response to the type of music affects our heart rate. Music I would consider soothing slows my heart rate perceptibly, and music I would consider exciting (or maybe irritating) speeds my heart rate. The brain responds to the rhythm and whenever we listen to music, the brain catches the rhythm and this is why it affects heart rate. It becomes subconscious act, like a neurological pulse, and this affects the medulla oblongata which controls heart rate. The heart rate doesn't beat at the same tempo as the music, but it sows down or speeds up in order to become closer to it.