Re: Thinking with our hearts

Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
12 Jul 1999 16:51:17 +0200

"Theta 8008" <ubergoo@hotmail.com> writes:

> neurocardiologist
> >have found that 60 to 65% of the cells of the heart are actually neural
> >cells, not muscle cells as was previously believed. They are identical
> >to the neural cells in the brain, operating through the same connecting
> >links called ganglia, with the same axonal and dendritic connections that
> >take place in the brain, as well as through the very same kinds of
> >neurotransmitters found in the brain.

Huh? Any sources for this? The Purkinje fibers are muscle fibers that also act as signal transductors, using gap junctions to send signals quickly but not act as switches. The electrical of the activity is also very simple.

> >Quite literally, in other words, there is a "brain" in the heart, whose
> >ganglia are linked to every major organ in the body, to the entire
> >muscle spindle system that uniquely enables humans to express their
> >emotions.

Que? What is the evidence for this? As far as I remember, it is not connected to anything by the vagus nerve and sympathetic nervous system, and I haven't heard of any efferent connections from the heart.

> >About half of the heart's neural cells are involved in
> >translating information sent to it from all over the body so that it can
> >keep the body
> >working as one harmonious whole. And the other half make up a very
> >large, unmediated neural connection with the emotional brain in our head

This sounds rather suspicious. To be honest, it sounds like complete bullshit given the effects (or rather non-effects) of pacemakers and heart transplants on emotions.


Anders Sandberg                                      Towards Ascension!
asa@nada.kth.se                            http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/
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