Heart’s Brain!

We, humans, are always under constant war at the time of decision making. It’s our heart and brain that confuse us. Sometimes they go with each other and sometime against each other. This is because they have their own thinking abilities. Wait, what? Heart has its own thinking abilities is like implying that a heart has its brain. That may seem rubbish, but

Is that even possible?

Origin of Idea:

As said, we are sometimes suggested to follow what our brain says and sometimes what our heart says. Also, it is seen that increase in the work load is one of the main reasons for heart attack. But how can a mere increase in work load which involves thinking and decision making, the tasks of human brain, cause a heart attack? What does the heart have to do anyway? Questions worth pondering……

What is heart’s brain?

David Paterson, Ph.D. a professor at Oxford University, connects the two areas – the brain and the heart. His work shows that your brain is not the sole source of your emotions, but indeed, your heart and brain work together in producing emotions. Your heart, contains neurons, like those in your brain, and your heart and brain are closely connected, creating a symbiotic emotional whole.

While this seems to support the view that the heart simply follows the orders of the brain, the actual working is much more complex. Because the heart also contains thousands of specialized neurons (which are more than 40,000) , predominantly located around the right ventricle surface, forming a complex network. While much about the neurons in your heart is still unknown, one thing is sure — the “brain” in your heart communicates back and forth with the brain in your head.

So overall, it’s a two-way communication where brain and heart both respond to each other.

Can we test it?

As a matter of fact, the heart’s brain is already in function without you knowing about it. But you have, however unknowingly felt it’s working. This is when you are under stress or have negative or painful emotions. At this point of time you have noticed that your heart beats erratically and that you are incapable of making decisions or think properly. However, when you are in good mood you tend to have more ideas and seem to be more interested in your work. So, with these two things happening simultaneously, you just have to just connect the dots.

So how is important anyway?

Well, now that we know about it, we can work towards using it in a better way. And that would be by maintaining an emotional balance and a stress balance over us. Now that we scientifically understand why do negative emotions hamper our cognitive skills, we can try to avoid such feelings. Now that we know it we cannot deny the importance of positive attitude in our life and work towards maintaining it.

Source : HeartMath.org

Image Source : Google