Global study of long term heart rhythm synchronization in groups

Area of Science:

• Physiology
• Social Neuroscience
• Data Science

Background:

• Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) dynamics are reflected in heart rhythm variability.
• Previous studies observed heart rhythm synchronization between individuals, but lacked global, long-term, multi-location data.
• This research utilizes a novel global dataset for continuous, multi-week heart rhythm monitoring.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate long-term heart rhythm synchronization across geographically dispersed participants.
• To identify regional differences in heart rhythm correlations and rhythmic patterns.
• To explore the role of social connectedness in physiological synchrony.

Main Methods:

• Continuous ambulatory heart rhythm monitoring of 104 participants across five global locations for 15 days.
• Analysis of long-term correlations in heart rhythms within and between regions.
• Population-mean cosinor analysis to detect significant rhythmic patterns, specifically circaseptan rhythms.

Main Results:

• Significant long-term heart rhythm correlations were found only in participants from Saudi Arabia and New Zealand.
• A significant circaseptan (approximately 7-day) rhythm was observed in Saudi Arabian and New Zealander groups.
• These findings suggest weekly rhythms and long-term movements contribute to observed correlations.

Conclusions:

• Social connectedness may drive long-term heart rhythm synchronization, even in the absence of physical proximity or joint tasks.
• Participants in Saudi Arabia and New Zealand exhibited higher levels of social closeness, correlating with physiological synchrony.
• This study provides evidence for a link between social factors and autonomic nervous system synchrony on a global scale.