Commonly, we know that the brain is the monitor and the controller of the entire body, especially in what concerns feeling pain. In general, we think of the brain as the central processing unit of the body.
But that is not totally true to a certain degree.
In 1991, Dr. Armour discovered that the heart has its “little brain” or “intrinsic cardiac nervous system.” This “heart brain” is composed of approximately 40,000 neurons that are alike neurons in the brain, meaning that the heart has its own nervous system.
The heart is not only a pump but a little brain that has its own neural network. The methods targeting the heart modulate pain regions in the brain. These methods seem to modulate the key changes that occur in the brain regions and are involved in the cognitive and emotional factors of pain. Thus, the heart is probably a key moderator of pain.
This may be an exaggeration but maybe the statement that the heart is the source of emotions, desire, and wisdom is not far from being the truth.
We are still in the infancy of neuroscience and indeed there are a lot of mysteries that we did not uncover about our own bodies. Hopefully, we’ll gain more valuable insights in the future!
Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31728781/
