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People are wowed by animals that have multiple brains (eg: octopus' arms), perhaps not realizing that humans do too, in a sense — the enteric nervous system (de
by turtledragonfly 3y ago
People are wowed by animals that have multiple brains (eg: octopus' arms), perhaps not realizing that humans do too, in a sense — the enteric nervous system (described in the article).
It's the reason you can still digest food if you're a quadriplegic, for instance.
The enteric nervous system has about the same number of neurons as a cat brain, for point of reference.
Sometimes I think of the activity of my guts as my little cat brain, taking care of things down there, so I don't have to (:
- turtledragonfly 3y agoAlso, if you're interested in what intestines look like squirming about in real time: (beware! NSFW, medical gore, blood/guts/etc) https://old.reddit.com/r/medizzy/comments/ttz995/peristalsis_of_the_intestines_observed_outside/ https://old.reddit.com/r/medizzy/comments/ttz995/peristalsis... Gross, but fascinating too.
- vram22 3y ago>beware! NSFW, medical gore, blood/guts/etc Same for a human brain, or heart, whether pumping or not. Comment based on seeing a NatGeo photo of a human brain (not a diagram), and a real human heart in the hand of a medical student friend of mine, at his college exhibition. The brain photo grossed me out more than the real heart; don't know why. :) Edit: the heart didn't gross me out at all, actually.
- mock-possum 3y agoWow that’s great! Reminds me of the Cerebretes in StarCraft, long fleshy undulating coils
- readthenotes1 3y agoI am 100% positive that is the gut brain that is listening to my microbiota saying that yes I should buy those chocolates in the grocery store and no I will not eat them all in one sitting. My head brain knows better but with that confident voice speaking differently what am I to do?
- redroyal 3y agoAre you certain there’s only a single consciousness operating in your head?
- turtledragonfly 3y agoHeck no! And if you're interested, check out the Nobel-prize-winning split-brain experiments. Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCv4K5aStdU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCv4K5aStdU
- anileated 3y agoThe master and his emissary already make up two, and as someone said once “the reason why inside you there are two wolves is because the smaller wolves have to merge into coalitions to have a chance of getting first past the post in the race for control of your muscles.”