A new study has found that surgeons who listen to AC/DC while operating are more accurate and efficient.
The study further found that listening to fast-paced music tended to speed up operations and rock music proved to have a calming effect on surgeons and even lower their blood pressure.
In the study, the surgeons who listened to AC/DC’s Highway To Hell and T.N.T. reduced the time it took to make an incision from 236 seconds to just 139 seconds.
Lead researcher Cui Yang from Heidelberg University, Germany, wrote in Langenbeck’s Archives of Surgery journal: “Our results show that both soft rock and hard rock can enhance surgical performance.
“For hard rock music, the positive effect was especially noticeable when the music was played in high volume.
“It is possible that music with high rhythmicity could provide a tempo to keep up the speed of the performance and thus enhance task performance.”
The Beatles’ Hey Jude and Let It Be were two other songs that were tested in the study and the results indicated that the average time it took a surgeon to stitch up wounds was increased by as much as 50%, however, only when the music was played at a low volume.
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So, while the study generally found positive effects that linked surgeon’s techniques and rock music, another study has found that listening to heavy metal can lead to unhealthy food choices.
As per Consequence of Sound, a study that was published in Appetite showcases the upsetting findings. 215 cross-cultural participants were involved from the above countries. They were presented with a wide range of food choices, both healthy and unhealthy options, and different soundtracks.
Before the study was conducted, a survey was taken to determine what would be classes as a “healthy” or “unhealthy” song, with heavy metal and hard rock unsurprisingly being counted as the latter.
Participants in the study were presented with two versions of the same song: the “healthy” one consisted of slower tempos and major keys while the “unhealthy” one featured heavy guitars, a faster tempo and minor notes.
Sound effects were also added underneath, city noise being added to the “unhealthy” soundtrack and gentle ocean waves to the “healthy” soundtrack.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the participants who listened to the “healthy” song tended to go for healthier foods, with those who listened to the “unhealthy” version going for less healthy foods.
The study, then, found a “causal relationship between healthy sounds and healthy food choice.” Certain sounds, not unlike tastes, were found to be either bitter or sweet, according to Danni Peng-Li, a doctoral student in the department of food science at Aarhus University and the study’s lead author.
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