Heart rate control by listening to light

Abstract

The auditory-cardiac interplay enables sound perception to modulate cardiac rhythm and homeostasis. However, its underlying regulatory mechanism and therapeutic potential remain largely underexplored, due to fundamental limitations in acoustic stimulation precision. Here we present an opto-mechano-cardiac coupling strategy that bypasses the propagation constraints of sound wave to enable precise acoustic modulation of cardiac function. Utilizing dynamically reconfigurable optical traps (1064 nm, 100 kHz refresh rate), we translated musical rhythms into programmable otolith oscillation patterns, thus establishing deterministic input-output relationships between mechanical stimulation and cardiac responses. We found that hindbrain areas, primarily the vagal motor area, mediate this opto-mechano-cardiac modulation, through adrenergic activation and a shift in the balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic activity. Leveraging real-time rhythm transcoding, we precisely quantified the modulation capabilities of auditory stimuli with distinct spectral composition on cardiac rhythm, and successfully rescued the drug-induced pathological cardiac rhythm disorders. By bridging optical physics and autonomic cardiac physiology via optomechanical otolith oscillation, this work establishes a mechanistic framework to explore sensory-cardiac modulation and personalized arrhythmia management, paving the way for advancing music therapy from empirical practice to quantitative biomedicine. The auditory-cardiac interplay allows sound to influence cardiac rhythm, but precise control is limited by acoustic wave propagation. Here, the authors present an opto-mechano-cardiac coupling strategy that uses optical traps to convert music rhythm into programmable otolith oscillations, identifying key neural pathways and successfully rescuing drug-induced arrhythmias.