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You are not (just) your brain (essays.debugyourpain.com)
submitted 2 days ago by cm0002@toast.ooo to c/science@mander.xyz
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[-] Doomsider@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

If a heart transplant is reported to give the recipient some memory and characteristics from the donor it makes you wonder how much of your personality and behavior is derived from your gut with ten times the neurons that a heart has.

How many behavioral and psychological issues may be related to the gut? It is a fascinating question.

[-] MrSoup@lemmy.zip 11 points 2 days ago

I remember an old documentary in which a person, after an heart transplant, had little changes in personality.

If my memory don't fool me, the donor was a surfer and the recipient started like greeting or something like him.

[-] ageedizzle@piefed.ca 4 points 1 day ago

There is some limited evidence to suggest that heart transplants can transfer aspects of the donors' personality and possibly even traumatic memories over to the recipient (see here ). There are also a lot of anecdotes that effect (eg this or the one you mentioned). I actually even remember once hearing a story of a woman who claimed she became lesbian after a heart transplant.

[-] j4yc33@piefed.social 11 points 2 days ago

Each eye has around one and a half to twice as many neurons (high estimates put the number between 120 and 150k, low estimates at 75-110k), roughly, as the heart. Ergo, I exist in my Stomach, Two Eyes, and my Brain more than anywhere else in the body? Also, depending on some estimates, the lumbosacral plexus has more neurons than the heart (150,000 for motor control of each leg, give or take depending on well-known estimates)... So my thighs aren't just thick, they're also a seat of neurological control.

We also have like 8 Ganglion clusters (sub brains, if you will) that allow for autonomic control of organs when BigBrain :tm: isn't functioning correctly.

Also, at best there is a strong (but increasingly weak in larger studies) correlation between Neuron count and neurofunctional complexity. It helps to read more literature than the one paper that is found to support a chosen argument...

https://d-nb.info/1332809901/34
https://karger.com/bbe/article/99/2/109/860281/The-Relationship-between-Cognition-and-Brain-Size

To the point of this: It is not "neuro-reductionist" to focus on the brain as the seat of Neurology in the human body. Take away the brain entirely and we know that these substructures stop computing. No one involved in the study of neurology thinks we are entirely in our own brains, but they do think the brain is the core element of human neurology.

[-] cholesterol@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

At least as relevant is the question of what the exact seat of consciousness/identity actually is. We don't expect a mass of neurons to become conscious simply by adding more neurons.

[-] ageedizzle@piefed.ca 10 points 2 days ago
[-] Remember_the_tooth@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

It kinda explains his behavioral issues, if anything.

[-] Mac@mander.xyz 4 points 1 day ago

He just need his needs met so he can strive for self-actualization. 🥺

this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2026
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