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Mar 6, 2026, 16:15

Basma El Homasany: The ‘Little Brain’ of the Heart and Its Role in Health

Basma El Homasany, Founder of Smile and Age Well, Fellow at Antiaging Metabolic Medical Institute (MMI), shared a post on LinkedIn:

“Look after your heart , your thoughts and your emotions.

Emotions affect the heart rate, blood pressure, respiration and digestion, when we are excited, there are more nerve fibers traveling from the heart to the brain than from the brain to the heart.

Those signals go to areas that control:

Fear (amygdala)
Attention
Decision-making
Emotional regulation
Digestion

The heart and brain share a dynamic, bidirectional connection through the autonomic nervous system, especially the vagus nerve.

Fascinatingly, the heart had its very own nervous system that could function independently of the brain!

Affectionately called ‘the little brain’ of the heart, it became a point of fascination in the field – why does the heart need its own nervous system anyway?

How does it help the heart function?

It also became a potential target for the vagus nerve.

Could a connection between the brain and the ‘little brain’ be the key to restoring heart health?

Researchers found that unlike neurons of the brain, which are often defined by the chemical they release – either ones that augment or depress activity, etc. – neurons of the heart had much more fluid expression of these chemicals.

It was as if the heart’s neurons contained multiple identities.

The various permutations and combinations allow the neurons in the ‘ittle brain’ to fine tune how the heart responds to signals from the brain.

This connection has captivated scientists for centuries, emphasizing the significant impact of the interplay between the cardiovascular and nervous systems on our health, emotions, and behaviors.

The ‘heart–brain axis‘ refers to coupled physiology where brain states (stress, stroke, autonomic imbalance) change cardiac function, and cardiac states (heart failure, arrhythmias, vascular disease) change brain structure/function.

The controversial part: a lot of what people call ‘brain symptoms’ (fatigue, brain fog, depression, cognitive slowing) can be downstream of cardiovascular physiology rather than purely ‘psychological,’ and conversely many ‘cardiac events’ after neurologic injury are not primary heart disease but brain-driven.”

Proceed to the video attached to the post.

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