Abstract

We evaluated the effect of different forms of singing on cardiorespiratory physiology, and we aimed at disentangling the role of breathing from that of vocal production. Cardiorespiratory recordings were obtained from 20 healthy adults at rest and during: a) singing of familiar slow songs as in the standard form of Western culture; b) improvised vocalization of free vowel sounds, known as toning. To disentangle the role of breathing from that of vocal production, we compared the vocal conditions with matched breathing-only conditions. Toning significantly improved heart rate variability, ventilatory efficiency and slowed respiration to almost exactly six breaths per minute (p < 0.001), a pattern that is known to optimize cardiovascular function and that coincides with the period of endogenous circulatory rhythms. Singing songs also positively impacted cardiorespiratory function, although to a lesser extent. The breathing pattern imposed upon participants in the absence of vocal production was sufficient to generate the physiological benefits. The effects of toning are similar to what has been previously described as a result of engaging in formal breathing exercises. Toning and singing may offer an engaging and cost effective tool to trigger beneficial respiratory patterns and the related cardiovascular benefits.

Highlights

  • Singing is being increasingly considered as a tool to support rehabilitation of various medical and psychological conditions, for its potential to provide a low-cost, social and highly engaging training of respiratory function[1]

  • Vickhoff et al.[6] showed that choir group singing improves heart rate variability (HRV) and promotes inter-individual synchronization of HRV fluctuations. The interest of these results lies in the fact that HRV is a significant predictor of cardiovascular health

  • Reduced HRV has been associated with conditions such as hypertension[7], heart failure[8] and work stress[9]

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Summary

Introduction

Singing is being increasingly considered as a tool to support rehabilitation of various medical and psychological conditions, for its potential to provide a low-cost, social and highly engaging training of respiratory function[1]. Vickhoff et al.[6] showed that the effects of singing are dependent on the specific form of singing, with mantra sung at a rhythm of 6 breaths/minute (0.1 Hz) yielding the maximum increase in HRV and inter-individual synchronization. In another choir study, Olsson et al.[11] showed that group singing of slow songs www.nature.com/scientificreports/. Because previous studies used pre-determined songs, it is not known whether favourable changes to cardiorespiratory function might be observed as a result of singing in one if its most accessible forms, that is, the improvised vocalizations of open vowel sounds performed by a single and untrained individual. We contrasted cardiorespiratory function during singing with a non-vocal condition in which the respiratory patterns were matched to what participants had themselves produced during the vocal conditions

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