“The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the visions, values and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.” - Steve Jobs
People's heart rates synchronize even if they are just listening to a story, according to a new study. People's heartbeat and breathing also synchronize when they share an experience, such as a live performance or a personal conversation. A study has found that following a story and processing stimulus will cause similar fluctuations in people's heart rates. It's not about emotions, but about being engaged and attentive, and thinking about what will happen next. Your heart responds to those signals from the brain, researchers say.
Four experiments have been conducted to explore the role of consciousness and attention in synchronizing participants’ heart rates. Healthy volunteers listened to an audiobook of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and their heart rate is measured by electrocardiogram (EKG). The researchers found that the majority of subjects showed increases and decreases in their heart rate at the same points in the narrative.
Another experiment, subjects listened to short children’s stories, some while attentive and others while being distracted, and then were asked to recall facts from the stories. The researchers found that the fluctuations seen in the participants’ heart rates were predictive of how well they did at answering questions about the story. More synchronization predicted better test scores. This indicated that changes in heart rate were a signal of conscious processing of the narrative. More details can read here https://neurosciencenews.com/story-attention-19216/
Comments