Name:Manon, Palmer

School/Affiliation:Université de Montréal

Co-Authors:Manon Palmer, Mihaela Felezeu, Véronique Martel, Nicholas Foster, Isabelle Peretz

Virtual or In-person:In-person

Abstract:

Despite extensive research on the impact of music on cardiac activity, the reverse influence has been less examined. Here, we validate a novel apparatus designed to assess whether age-related changes in cardiac activity, such as increased heart rate variability (HRV) from cardiac arrhythmias, may affect rhythmic synchronization.

To this aim, we simultaneously recorded cardiac activity and tapping regularity in 38 healthy adults aged 50-75 years. Participants completed an unpaced finger-tapping task at their chosen pace and a paced synchronization task with a metronome set at tempi of 450, 600, and 750 ms between piano tones.
 
Participants showed tapping regularity, heart rate and heart rate variability consistent with healthy population norms (Dalla Bella et al., 2024; Shaffer & Ginsberg, 2017). In line with the literature, the heart rate variability (HRV) was highest at rest, and tapping variability was highest in medium paced compared to unpaced, slow and fast paced tapping. However, the relation between heart beats and taps remains to be established.
 
The current work constitutes the foundation for our subsequent analyses which will directly test the relationship between tapping regularity and heart rate variability in the normal population and in persons presenting cardiac arrhythmias, known as atrial fibrillation.