The heart was quickened in harmony with
the quickened breathing. Neither breathing nor heart was ever slowed. As
regards the capillary pulsation, an influence was exerted chiefly, if not
exclusively, by gay and exciting melodies, which produced a shrinking.
Throughout the experiments it was found that the most profound
physiological effects were exerted by those pieces which the subject found
to be most emotional in their influence on him.[104]
Guibaud studied the question on a number of subjects, confirming and
extending the conclusions of Binet and Courtier. He found that the
reactions of different individuals varied, but that for the same
individual reactions were constant. Circulatory reaction was more often
manifest than respiratory reaction. The latter might be either a
simultaneous modification of depth and of rapidity or of either of these.
The circulatory reaction was a peripheral vasoconstriction with diminished
fullness of pulse and slight acceleration of cardiac rhythm; there was
never any distinct slowing of heart under the influence of music. Guibaud
remarks that when people say they feel a shudder at some passage of music,
this sensation of cold finds its explanation in the production of a
peripheral vasoconstriction which may be registered by the
plethysmograph.
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