Good Arla, Pachete Alexander, Gilmore Sean, Russo Frank A
Department of Psychology, Toronto Metropolitan University, 350 Victoria St., Toronto, ON, M5B 2K3, Canada.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jul 23;15(1):26713. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-09200-x.
Research on group singing has demonstrated numerous benefits to wellbeing including boosts in mood, increases in social bonding, and reductions in stress. These benefits can be achieved by individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD), a group that is especially at risk for social isolation given the typical decline in mobility and communication that accompanies neuromotor degeneration. Several mechanisms of action have been proposed to explain the benefits to wellbeing, with one prominent hypothesis emphasizing that interpersonal movement synchrony enhances feelings of social bonding. In the current study, we explore this hypothesis by comparing group singing to yoga, another popular activity among people living with PD that confers a temporary boost in wellbeing. Critically, yoga tends to have low levels of interpersonal movement synchrony compared with group singing that requires precise temporal alignment and the shared goal of synchronization. Twenty individuals living with PD were recruited from pre-existing community programs: ten from a weekly choir, and ten from a weekly yoga class. We compared these activities through a biopsychosocial lens, including acute measurements of mood, social bonding, cortisol, and oxytocin before and after the group activity. The results revealed that while both activities enhanced mood and decreased cortisol, group singing was associated with greater overall social closeness and significant increases in oxytocin. Although the absence of demographic data represents a limitation, the findings nonetheless offer valuable insight into the potential of group singing to foster social bonds and enhance wellbeing, indicating interpersonal movement synchrony and the release of oxytocin as possible mechanisms driving this effect.
关于集体合唱的研究表明，它对身心健康有诸多益处，包括改善情绪、增强社会联系以及减轻压力。帕金森病（PD）患者也能获得这些益处，鉴于神经运动退化通常会导致行动能力和沟通能力下降，这一群体尤其容易面临社会隔离的风险。人们提出了几种作用机制来解释其对身心健康的益处，其中一个突出的假设强调人际动作同步性会增强社会联系感。在本研究中，我们通过将集体合唱与瑜伽进行比较来探究这一假设，瑜伽是另一种在帕金森病患者中很受欢迎的活动，能暂时改善身心健康。关键的是，与需要精确时间对齐和同步共同目标的集体合唱相比，瑜伽的人际动作同步性往往较低。从现有的社区项目中招募了20名帕金森病患者：10名来自每周一次的唱诗班，10名来自每周一次的瑜伽班。我们从生物心理社会的角度比较了这些活动，包括在集体活动前后对情绪、社会联系、皮质醇和催产素进行急性测量。结果显示，虽然这两种活动都能改善情绪并降低皮质醇，但集体合唱与更强的整体社会亲密感以及催产素的显著增加有关。尽管缺乏人口统计学数据是一个局限性，但这些发现仍然为集体合唱在促进社会联系和增强身心健康方面的潜力提供了有价值的见解，表明人际动作同步性和催产素的释放可能是产生这种效果的机制。
