Rhythms Of The Heart

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30630, 22 December 1964, Page 14

Rhythms Of The Heart

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.)

LONDON, December 20. German scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Behaviour Psychology have found that the heart can be made to beat in almost any rhythm and will automatically pick up the beat set for it, says the Bonn correspondent of the “Daily Mail.” Man may be the captain of his soul, but experiments carried out at Seewiesen, Bavaria, throw doubt on whether he is in command of his heart.

If a person whose normal pulse is 70 a minute is put next to a metronome ticking at 100, within half an hour his heart will have speeded up to synchronise with the metronome.

Similarly, it will adjust itself to the tick of a clock. This is why many people cannot sleep with a clock on the bedside table.

By accelerating the heartbeat, German scientists found it possible to reproduce symptoms of fever, heavy physical

labour and psychological excitement, the correspondent said.

They found the human organism could not resist a rhythm imposed from outside. That is why all except very top people tap their feet at a dance and even the snootiest guards officer cannot help marching in time to the band. Persons do not realise what harm they are doing to themselves by not tapping their feet.

Dr. Hoahnnes Kneutgen started by analysing the psychological effects of music on human beings and the accompanying physiological reactions.

He discovered a terrifying degree of automatism. A squirrel. which normally makes 120 hops a minute, slowed down or quickened its pace to match the metronome. If it got out of step, it would stop, listen to the beat and pick up the step again whether it was 144 or 92.