27 April 2009

Science of the Heart, IHM Research Center,MUSIC RESERCH

MUSIC RESERCH.

Studies summarized thus far in this Overview, taken together, have painted a picture of the profound favorable effects that mental/emotional balance and heart-focused positive feeling states have on the body and psyche-from promoting increased autonomic balance and greater coherence in cardiac and brain function, to boosting natural immunity and DHEA levels, to significantly reducing stress and negative affect and increasing positive affect. Understanding the significance of this impressive range of effects, as well as the power of music as a universal mode of expression, Doc Childre, as a composer, sought to scientifically design music for the specific purpose of promoting mental and emotional balance in listeners, facilitating the experience of heart-focused positive feeling states and the use of the HeartMath tools. Through several years of research in IHM’s 24-track recording studio, Childre created two musical works which integrate specific rhythmic patterns, tone textures, chord progressions and harmonic resonances to produce their intended effects. The results of the research studies reviewed in this section clearly demonstrate this music to elicit specific beneficial responses in listeners’ physiological, mental and emotional systems.


Music that Enhances Emotional Balance and Mental Clarity


Doc’s first release, Heart Zones, spent 50 consecutive weeks on Billboard’s Adult Alternative chart and introduced a new musical genre: ’designer music,’ a term used to describe music that is intentionally designed to affect the listener in specific ways. Heart Zones was specifically designed to facilitate stress reduction, boost vitality and increase buoyancy and clarity. The music has been described as a mental and emotional workout’ and is intended to produce a ’calm yet energetic alertness’ in the listener. Childre’s second designer music release, entitled Speed of Balance – A Musical Adventure for Mental and Emotional Regeneration, was composed with the intent to facilitate mental and emotional balance in listeners, enabling people to experience clearer and more positive perceptions. Among the intended effects of Speed of Balance are to energize the listener, enhance creativity and improve clear decision making.

Numerous studies have shown that music affects emotions and mood states and can also modify physiological responses. It is well recognized, as demonstrated in many of the papers summarized in this overview, that changes in mental and emotional activity alter autonomic nervous system function. The ANS, in turn, regulates cardiovascular, neuroendocrine and immune system activity. Thus, it is postulated that since music alters mood and emotional state, the immune, hormonal, cardiovascular and other physiological changes observed after people listen to music are likely to be mediated by the ANS.

The studies presented below provide evidence that it is through this mechanism that Childre’s designer music exerts its effects on listeners. In the first study, Heart Zones, in contrast to other types of music tested, is shown to produce significant increases in listeners’ secretory IgA levels, accompanied by corresponding increases in total autonomic activity. The second study demonstrates that Speed of Balance significantly affects listeners’ mood and emotions, producing significantly greater increases in positive affect and decreases in negative affect than any other form of music tested. It appears that it is these profound favorable shifts in emotional state that directly impact the ANS, giving rise to the beneficial physiological repercussions of the music. This is further supported by the results seen when the music is used in conjunction with the HeartMath techniques. While research shows that simply casually listening to Heart Zones and Speed of Balance produces significant beneficial psychological and physiological effects, both pieces of music were designed to be maximally effective when used to facilitate the practice of the HeartMath emotional management interventions. Both studies below demonstrate that when people listen to Heart Zones or Speed of Balance while sustaining a sincere, heart-focused state of appreciation through the Heart Lock-In technique, significantly larger positive emotional, mental and physiological shifts are experienced as compared to listening to the music alone.

While the two studies reviewed below were specifically designed to examine the effects of the music, Childre’s music was also used in conjunction with the Heart Lock-In and Cut-Thru interventions in a number of other studies described in this Overview.

TO READ MORE AND SEE THE DIAGRAMS PLEASE VISIT;

http://www.heartmath.org/research/science-of-the-heart-music-research.html

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