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The "little brain in the heart" is an intricate system of nerve cells that control and regulate the heart's activity. It is also called the intrinsic cardiac nervous system (ICNS). [15] It consists of about 40,000 neurons that form clusters or ganglia around the heart, especially near the top where the blood vessels enter and exit.
In this species, the nervous system is sexually dimorphic; the nervous systems of the two sexes, males and hermaphrodites, have different numbers of neurons and groups of neurons that perform sex-specific functions. In C. elegans, males have exactly 383 neurons, while hermaphrodites have exactly 302 neurons. [24]
The heart is both the source of life and a source of cardiac arrhythmias and complications. The information originates in the brain's cortex and descends down to the hypothalamus . The neural signals are then transferred to the brainstem , followed by the spinal cord —the location from which the heart receives all its signals.
In 1962, Bernard Katz modeled neurotransmission across the space between neurons known as synapses. Beginning in 1966, Eric Kandel and collaborators examined biochemical changes in neurons associated with learning and memory storage in Aplysia. In 1981 Catherine Morris and Harold Lecar combined these models in the Morris–Lecar model.
Aristotle states the heart is the location of the 5 sensations of the body and is directly responsible for respiration and the sustenance of life. [8] The heart is of further importance as it is all animal's area of heating the body and blood and the creation of pneuma, or life force that animates the body. [8]
Neurons are nerve cells; there are about 100 billion neurons in the brain of an adult, “and they’re not all the same,” says Tracy. “There are all sorts of neurons that do different things.
The group published a study in the journal Cell that highlights how the specialized secretory cells found in the ancient creatures may have given rise to neurons in more complex animals.
Many neurons migrating along the anterior-posterior axis of the body use existing axon tracts to migrate along in a process called axophilic migration. [18] An example of this mode of migration is in GnRH-expressing neurons , which make a long journey from their birthplace in the nose, through the forebrain, and into the hypothalamus. [ 19 ]