Wearing a 'heart' on your sleeve can reduce stress
Researchers from the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway, University of London assessed the calming effects of a new wearable device called doppel -- a wristband designed to actively reduce stress by using the intuitive responses that we all have to rhythm, and especially to heartbeats. Inate rhythm Humans naturally respond to rhythm. For example, the tempo of a song can naturally alter our breathing and heart rates. Slower tempos result in lower arousal and positive or calm emotional states, while we associate fast rhythms with arousing emotional states such as joy, excitement, surprise, fear or anger. Beyond music, several studies report similar effects in responses to biological rhythms, and the heartbeat is perhaps the most ubiquitous biological rhythm in nature. "High arousal is correlated with increased heart rate, whereas calmness is physiologically correlated with lower heart rate," said Professor Manos Tsakiris from the Department of Psychology. ...