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Asked by iamripped to Fiona, Joanna, Michelle, William on 24 Jun 2010 in Categories: General.
Question: how is the sinu atrial node in the heart connected to the brain?
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William Davies answered on 23 Jun 2010:
The sinuatrial node is connected by the vagal nerve of the parasympathetic nervous system and the sympathetic nervous fibres to the spinal cord, and from there to the brain’s cardiac centres in the brain stem (medulla oblongata and pons) at the top of your neck
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Joanna Brooks answered on 23 Jun 2010:
Hello again! The ‘sinuatrial node’ is the node in the heart that acts like a ‘pacemaker’ and helps set the heart beat – it acts like an electrical impulse generator. For this reason I would say that the sinuatrial node probably communicates with nerves in the spinal cord – and the nerves in the spinal cord communicate with the brain through the ‘brain stem’ which has many nerve connections.
BTW did you do the quiz to find out what sex your brain is?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sex/add_user.shtml -
Fiona Randall answered on 24 Jun 2010:
The sinoatrial node is connected to the brain by both parasympathetic and sympathetic nerve fibres. If the heart rate is too high, the brain sends messages along the parasympathetic nerves to cause a decrease in heart rate. If the heart rate is too low, the sympathetic fibres take messages from the brain to increase heart rate. So when you are scared, it is your sympathetic nervous system that makes your heart go faster!
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