How true, listen to your heart

Listening to your heartbeat can help you make better decisions

People may be able to control their emotions more effectively or make better decisions if they are aware of how their heart is beating, a new study suggests. An international team of researchers found that not everyone is able to tune into their heartbeat, and half of us under- or over-estimate our ability.

“Follow your heart’ has become something of a cliche, but we know that, consciously or unconsciously, there is a relationship between our heart rate and our decisions and emotions,” said Dr Tristan Bekinschtein, lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge.

Changing heart rate is part of our automatic and unconscious ‘fight or flight’ response – being aware of the heart’s rhythm could give people more control over their behaviour, researchers believe. In an experiment, scientists measured the brain activity of 33 volunteers using an electroencephalograph (EEG). The volunteers were asked to tap in synchrony as they listened to a regular and then irregular heartbeat.

Next, they were asked to tap out their own heartbeat in synchrony. Then, they were asked to tap out their own heartbeat while listening to it through a stethoscope. Finally, the stethoscopes were removed and they were once again asked to tap out their heartbeat.

During the task, when the volunteers were tapping out their heartbeat unaided, they were asked to rate their performance. Once the task was completed, they were asked how much they thought they had improved. Just over four in ten (42%) of the participants showed significant improvement in their ability to accurately tap along unaided with their heartbeat.

In those whose performance had improved, the researchers saw a stronger brain signal known as the ‘heartbeat evoked potential’ (HEP) across the brain. The researchers found no significant differences in the HEP when grouping the participants by how well they thought they had performed – their subjective performance.

In the final part of the test – after the participants had listened to their heartbeat through the stethoscope and were once again tapping unaided – the researchers found differences in brain activity between participants. They found an increase in ‘gamma phase synchrony’ – coordinated ‘chatter’ between different regions in the brain – in only those learners whose subjective judgement of their own performance matched their actual, objective performance.

“We’ve shown that for just under half of us, training can help us listen to our hearts, but we may not be aware of our progress,” said Bekinschtein. “Some people find this task easier to do than others do. Also, some people clearly don’t know how good or bad they actually are – but their brain activity gives them away.

“There are techniques such as mindfulness that teach us to be more aware of our bodies, but it will be interesting to see whether people are able to control their emotions better or to make better decisions if they are aware of how their heart is beating,” said Bekinschtein.