There is no organ quite like the human heart. The brain often gets a lot of recognition, as it should, however, the heart is inherently unique and deserves more acknowledgment. As one of the most important muscles, the heart pumps blood throughout our circulatory system to supply the necessary oxygen and required nutrients to tissues all over the body. Roughly six quarts of blood circulates the body three times a minute. The contractions the heart undergoes while pumping blood is what produces the eponymous beat. The average human heart beats nearly 100,000 times a day, 35 million times a year, and more than 2.5 billion times in one lifetime. Scientists, cardiologists, and the general populace have known the aforementioned facts about the heart for many years. Although this is true, there are still questions about the heart that have not yet been answered. Specifically: Why does a heartbeat sometimes synchronize with other heartbeats and what causes this phenomena?
A study conducted by Ferrer, E. , Sbarra, D., & Helm, J. (2012), observed thirty-two heterosexual couples' heart rates and breathing patterns while sitting a few feet across from each other. The study found that couples’ heart rates and breathing patterns synchronized while they were sitting across from each other without speaking or touching.
Another study conducted by Ivana Kovalinka, involved spectators and participants in a fire-walking ritual which took place in the Spanish village of San Pedro Manrique. Heart rate monitors were placed on thirty-eight people: twelve fire walkers, nine spectators (connected to fire walkers), and seventeen regular spectators of the show. The results showed that the heart rates of the nine spectators (with a connection to a fire walker) had comparable patterns to the heart rates of the performers. This was not observed in the heart rates of the seventeen general spectators. Kovalinka could not offer a complete explanation for phenomenon.
The implications of both studies are intriguing. If a person’s emotional bond to another person is strong enough, being physically close to them or simply looking at them could cause heart rates to synchronize. The two unrelated rhythms align and become a cohesive succession of muscle contractions producing one palpable beat. Respiratory patterns can also sync. The emotional bonds between two people, whether romantic, familial, or friendship, can result in this unconscious physiological response. Science offers no definitive answer as to why this occurs.
My theory: A person’s emotions directly influences their bodily functions. The love that an individual feels for another person causes synchronization of their heart beats. This is made evident by the findings in the previously mentioned research showing couple heart rate synchronization by merely being in each others presence. As humans, we are inherently social creatures who thrive on the emotional connections we have with each other. Ties that shape us; affecting us psychologically and physically in ways we still do not fully comprehend.
