The small brain of the heart

[Hyperspeed]

I watched a Channel 4 documentary a week or so back on the subject of heart transplants.

Some families of the heart recipient noticed their loved one changing personality and upon meeting the families of the deceased donor were surprised at how similar the recipient had become to the donor in terms of personality.

People started developing romantic tendancies, athletic abilities etc. just like the person who had died and donated the heart...

Then came the science bit which, frankly, was unlike anything I've seen before.

Scientists believe that memories are distributed, that it is possible your very soul is stored not just in the brain but in the spinal cord and other organs.

Microscope images were shown of a discovery by one scientist that the heart like the brain, similar to an FPU and CPU, has it's own set of neurones - a clump of brain matter inside the heart dubbed 'The small brain of the heart'. It has memory.

What it remembers wasn't clear but it was suggested that the heart sends more data to the brain than vice versa, and that the heart was more a key player in reactions than the brain itself.

Other science came out that the magnetic field generated by the heart had been detected 6 feet away by some sensitive equipment.

Of course, the main spooky thought that occurs here is this: if you donate a heart to someone after you die, is something living on in some form?

The neurons were described as having a vascular buffer function in that they remembered certain heart rates in order to process further reactions, but the question remains why these neurones aren't simply tucked away back up the brain...

And the old historic view of the heart as being the centre of the soul may not be so unfashionable now (as the heart is constantly moving, has a larger magnetic field, greater blood supply, has neurones and sends more signals to the brain than it receives).

Now, whilst it is not reasonable to suggest that a person's heart when transplanted will embody the recipient with the memories and soul of the donor, it is conceivable that the transplant could be like upgrading an 180W AT PSU to a 300W ATX PSU - you get a different power level with different control capabilities...

...and is it not reasonable to think that if the donated heart interfaces with the recipients brain then distributed memory is altered and the course of that person's history is changed (they would have lived their life with a certain metabolism and temprement but now with artificial intervention they will be changed).

I can't remember whether it said the recipient needed anti-rejection drugs permanently (the donor heart would be a different DNA and may be attacked by the recipients immune system) but the neurones could still find a way to change the whole recipe.

Interesting!

[iamaboringperson]

That's fascinating.

It would be nice to see more evidence in support of the idea that parts of peoples personality are transplanted along with the heart, however.

Still, something to ponder on.

[Hyperspeed]

Well, the documentary followed a mother who wished to meet the recipient of her dead son's heart.

She made a good point in that this man (who was lucky enough to receive a healthy donated heart) was carrying the beating organ that grew inside her during gestation of her son in the womb.

This pump lasts up to 110yrs old which in itself is amazing.

When you think about it, some hearts are physically larger than others which directs a child into either becoming a good athlete or if it's a slow metabolic heart maybe an artist.

Therefore, if someone sedate receives a fast beating heart or one with extra flow rate then this will carry oxygen rich blood to the brain quicker, adrenaline, testosterone etc will move different.

The recipient will at the very least develop a similar speed of life or either face a heart attack or just ant in his pants!

;-)

What I do wonder is this: if the heart surgeons wire up the arteries and stuff okay, do they actually wire the nerves that control the heart? I'm assuming so otherwise the recipient would need a pacemaker so... where does this heart->brain neural connection occur?

Another point to consider is this: is a good person thus because of their heart or because of their brain? Could metabolism influence the brain to criminality? Could the flow of hormones and the addiction to endorphines be the cause of cold hearted people?

Could paedophiles and criminals be given heart surgery to cure them of their psychological problems?

It has recently been discovered that migraine is caused by a tiny hole in the heart that lets lung-fuelling hormones travel to the brain by mistake. Sewing up the hole stops migraine.

:inquisitive:

[jkirk]

but the question remains why these neurones aren't simply tucked away back up the brain...

Reaction Time? Critical Timing?

[blobrana]

Hum,
fascinating,
something quite similar to large dinosaurs having an `extra brain` at the base of their spinal cord.

[Wain]

On a somewhat related note, I had a professor who was a working psychiatrist who related to us some stories from his days as a lab assistant in the 70's and he said that they'd managed to prove that memory floats around in a liquid state for up to an hour and circulates throughout the brain.

The experiment involved putting rats on an elevator that took them to a platform that would shock them if they left the elevator.  Apparently if you do this to a rat, and within a certain amount of time, cut open it's head and extract some liquid or another (I think he said they were taking RNA, but I know nothing about biochemistry) and inject it into the head of another rat the receiver would hide in the elevator once it  took him to the electrified platform.

I have no idea how well I've accurately stated this information, it was shared rather loosely as an anecdote, he didn't get into specifics, and I'm not capable of comprehending them at any real depth as it is...but it still was interesting.

[blobrana]

Hum,
smacks of Carl Jung's collective unconscious (aka Borg collective).

[bloodline]

Personally, I find the idea of a distributed memory stupid... and even if memories were distributed throught nervous system, I find the idea of memories stored in the organ (such as the heart)of one person being meaningfull to another person totally impossible, for a start, nerve bundles would have to match up perfectly, which simple can't happen.

[Hyperspeed]

bloodline: for some reason neurons don't have to be wired to each other to make a circuit. Sometimes they grow towards each other and bind in some pre-ordained fashion.

Another few shocking scientific things that have stuck in my mind over the last few years are these:

1) There is a funghus in some tropical rainforest that infects an ant then injects a chemical into the ant's bloodstream. The chemical puts the ant into a hypnotised automation, guiding it up into the treetops where the spores of the funghus burst from the ant's body, using the corpse as fertiliser.

2) It has been suggested that an octopuss has small brains in each of it's tentacles but the weirdest thing is - scientists have witnessed an octopuss detaching one of it's tentacles and seamingly manipulating it by remote control. It's almost as though the detached limb either has it's own consciousness or is under some bizarre telepathic mindset.

3) There is a group of bacteria-like lifeforms in North America that travels about in a single mass. It is nicknamed 'Dogs Dinner' as it looks like a puddle of sick. The creepy thing is that it doesn't have a brain or nervous system, no organs etc. It is a maleable mass of independant organisms that moves like the T-1000 across the ground.

4) There is an insect that gatecrashes an ant's nest and sprays ant pheremones everywhere to trick the ants into smelling the imposter as one of their own. It can even make pheremones to make the ants attack each other. The main aim of the chemical warfare though is to encourage an ant close enough to be able to spear it's head with a straw-like mouthpiece and suck out it's juices.

Sorry to be gruesome but all the above suggest that indeed mind functions could well be transmitted in a more complex manner than simply neural circuitry. Hormones, pheremones, proteins etc. are all chemical messengers - look at how quickly the smell of a hotdog makes us hungry.

Also of interest is that sleep and appetite urges are controlled by the brain, and sexual urges are controlled by hormones in the genitals.

Could be true that old saying that some people think in their pants!

:laughing: