A study of the relationship between two musical rhythm characteristics and heart rate variability (HRV)

Abstract

Heart rate variability (HRV) is a measure of variations in the heart rate. Over the last 25 years, HRV analysis has became more and more popular as a non-invasive research and clinical tool for indirectly investigating both cardiac and autonomic nervous system (ANS) function in both health and disease area. How the musical rhythmic characteristics, tempo and complexity, affect the performance of HRV is studied in this work. By understanding the relationship between music and the function of ANS, we can improve our life and health by music - non-invasively and simply.