Quote:
Originally Posted by Sutanimulli  Hi Steve,
Long-time reader, first-time poster.
I really liked the blog post, and was particularly fascinated by the information about there being 40,000 brain-like neurons in the heart. I wondered however what your source for this information is? I Googled it using many different search phrases but the only sites I found were other blogs making the same claim (with no source cited) and people asking on forums whether it is true or not. There was a lack of scientific data on the issue.
Since the article does seem to hinge somewhat on this information, could you shed some light on it please?
Many thanks,
Edd |
I expect he probably got the information from heartmath.org, which he's previously mentioned.
emWave Self-Regulation Technology Theoretical Basis says "In the new field of neurocardiology, for example, scientists have discovered that the heart possesses its own intrinsic nervous system—a network of nerves so functionally sophisticated as to earn the description of a "heart brain." Containing over 40,000 neurons, this "little brain" gives the heart the ability to independently sense, process information, make decisions, and even to demonstrate a type of learning and memory. In essence, it appears that the heart is truly an intelligent system."
I haven't dug up a paper with the exact count, but you can read about topics like "Cardiac sympathetic neuronal imaging using PET" on pubmed:
Cardiac sympathetic neuronal imag... [Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2007] - PubMed - NCBI