Biochemical and biophysical mechanisms underlying the heart and the brain dialog

Abstract

In this paper, within the so called “neuro-visceral integration model”, it is reviewed the ability of the heart to secrete numerous endocrine mediators, neurotransmitters and substances that regulate the immune function with repercussions on the central nervous system. The heart would also seem to be able to process various information independently, influencing the brain work through the “intrinsic cardiac nervous system” and baroreceptor pathways. In reviewing this matter, further physical mechanisms are also described, including mechanical contractions and deformations, that are involved in the “heart-brain symphony” based on intra-cardiac formation and propagation of blood vortices coupled to electrical signals. The relevance of the role of vorticity of the blood flow in the molecular dynamics and physiological activity is stressed. By resorting to some conceptual and formal aspects of the dissipative quantum model of brain, mechanisms such as the spontaneous breakdown of symmetry in many-body physics, the dynamical formation of long range correlations and their associated Nambu-Goldstone quanta, coherent states and fractal self-similarity are discussed with reference to the heart-brain dialog. Our discussion supports the view that the heart role is more than the one of a muscle responsible of the blood flow. Further related topics such as the formation of aneurysms and vein varices which in our modeling seem to be related to the weakening or loss of vorticity of the blood flow, the role of the recently discovered fluid-filled interstitial structure and the complex network of thick collagen bundles are finally briefly mentioned in the concluding remarks.