Do people think from their heart?

Question

We all know that the brain is in control of movement, information processing...etc.

But Do people think from their heart or from their brain? To me I have always thought that it was the brain. But this seems to contradict the view of religions:

Bible:

For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he..
..that you may know the thoughts of your heart
..The thought of your heart may be forgiven you.

Quran:

Unquestionably, they the disbelievers turn away their breasts to hide themselves from Him. Unquestionably, [even] when they cover themselves in their clothing, Allah knows what they conceal and what they declare. Indeed, He is Knowing of that within the breasts.

etc.

This seemed to be a religious topic to me at first but I've seen few websites that claim experiments from everyday life that heart can think.

For example:

And there are many other articles that talk about the same thing.

So do people think from their heart or from their brain?

This question appears to be off-topic because it isn't a notable claim. — Oddthinking, Jun 11 '14 at 14:07
Am I overstepping the mark here in not considering this a serious question? I see one user has taken this question seriously enough to give a full-referenced answer, which made me think twice, but I don't believe it is our role to explain metaphors or to explain primary school science. Has anyone made the literal claim that the heart is the centre of thinking since the Renaissance? — Oddthinking, Jun 11 '14 at 14:11
I also don't think it is a serious question, if there is a way of making money out of something, there will always be sites on the WWW making ridiculous claims (no matter how nutty), simply because there will also be those that will fall for them. If someone was selling starlight in a jar online as a remedy for stress, would that really require a referenced answer? — , Jun 11 '14 at 14:45
I don't think these descriptions are motivated by money. I think it is a poetic description with its roots in [Artistotlean anatomy](http://www.stanford.edu/class/history13/earlysciencelab/body/heartpages/heart.html) which haven't been taken seriously for four hundred years. — Oddthinking, Jun 11 '14 at 15:29
I meant the links given for the examples, rather than the passages from the Bible and Quran. The Macquarie Institute has a store http://www.macquarieinstitute.com/store_front.html . — , Jun 11 '14 at 17:06
Regarding your second reference to heart transplantees recovering memories of the donor, there is a big problem with this. The transplanted heart is denervated ( http://www.vanderbilthealth.com/transplant/11399 ) so there is no longer any neural connection between the heart and the brain. And therefore no way to access any stored data in any neural repository in the donated heart. — HappySpoon, Jun 12 '14 at 06:03
there may be 40,000 neurons in the heart, but there are a hundred million in the enteric system (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enteric_nervous_system), but that doesn't mean that "gut feelings" actually emanate from there! — , Jun 12 '14 at 15:07
In a sense of sentimental over rational (sth some people take to be opposite), this is based on the "heart" (in a poetic way). Now another issue is that various organs in the human body **do** in fact **affect** the thinking or feeling process of the brain (e.g stomach) so (at least) in **this** sense one can *think* or *feel* with the "heart" — Nikos M., Jun 18 '14 at 00:35
It is known that basic processes (which involve or affect *higher brain* processes) are based on the autonomous nervous system (and exactly this system is connected to other basic organs, like stomach, heart, kidneys, liver etc..) — Nikos M., Jun 18 '14 at 00:40
@Oddthinking, seeing the sceptics label on this site triggered various thoughts about sceptisism on various fronts (which sometimes have to doubt established or taken for granted things no matter the source of authority). However it seems this is only for *scientific skeptisism* which i dont know if it covers the range someone can be a skeptic (and **not** a politically correct one). Just found some space to point this btw — Nikos M., Jun 18 '14 at 00:46
@NikosM: There are [other types of skepticism](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skepticism). I don't think that is related to this question, which I closed because there was no "controversy". We are looking for claims people believe, and I assert (ready to change my mind if I am contradicted with a reference) that no-one has claimed this for 400 years. — Oddthinking, Jun 18 '14 at 00:51
@Oddthinking, true so i'll just leave it there for now. Regarding this topic i can argue otherwise (whole body as an organism is involved in both feeling and thus thinking, which has feeling as a substratum) but not in a comment.. maybe some other time.. — Nikos M., Jun 18 '14 at 07:09

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 11 '14 at 13:59

It's not true. The biological bases of thinking are located in the brain. Heart is just an automatic blood pump.

The nature of thinking capabilities and the sequence in which they appear have been well established on two research fronts. The biological basis underlying their appearance is established by periodic increases in brain size, brain weight, cellular growth within the brain, electrical functioning with the brain, and head circumference. The psychological basis is established through evidence of the individual's increasing capacity to deal with independent ideas and to exhibit the same kinds of behaviors as other individuals within two- to three-year ranges and, with growth, the individual's ability to replace naive with more sophisticated views.

Source: Lawrence F. Lowery. The Biological Basis of Thinking and Learning. 1998

The heart is a hollow, muscular organ about the size of a fist. It is responsible for pumping blood through the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions. The heart is composed of cardiac muscle, an involuntary muscle tissue that is found only within this organ.

Source: WikiBooks. Human Physiology/The cardiovascular system

You can say that heart "thinks" for itself because its contractions are not dependent on the nervous system but are influenced by it:

Automaticity is an intrinsic property of some types of cardiac tissues, like the nodes and the conducting fibers. Automatic cells are characterized by the appearance, during diastole, of a slow depolarization which is capable of reaching threshold and generate an action potential. This depolarization is the so-called slow diastolic depolarization, or pacemaker potential. Tissues with automaticity do not have the same intrinsic firing frequency, which determines the existence of a true pacemaker; normally this role is assumed by the sinus node and several latent, or subsidiary pacemakers. ... Some of the most important factors that modulate heart rate include the neurotransmitters of the automatic nervous system, the plasmatic levels of some ions, like potassium and calcium, and changes in the intrinsic properties of the membrane, like the influence of heart rate on the activity of the sodium pump.

Source: Valenzuela F, Kabela E. Automatism: an intrinsic property of cardiac tissues. Arch Inst Cardiol Mex. 1984 Nov-Dec;54(6):601-13.

Heart has been associated with emotions since Middle Ages. The first known depiction of a heart as a symbol of romantic love dates to the 1250s. Hearts can be seen on the bible Jesus holds in the Empress Zoe mosaic in the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. It probably dates from 1239 (source).

Emotions are the most basic thing of the human being and, therefore, they constitute something intrinsic to our lives. Above all, the heart stands out for being considered the place where they are located. Therefore, we can establish the metaphor “THE HEART IS A CONTAINER OF EMOTIONS”. Among them, love is the outstanding one. However, the fact that emotions are located in this body part does not constitute a universal, since there are other languages and cultures in which they are metaphorically reificated in other body parts. Turkish, for example, locates them in the liver, that is why the expression “My liver, my soul” may be striking to us. Another case is Nigerian English, language which considers the belly the seat of emotions.

Source: Regina Gutiérrez Pérez. A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Heart Metaphors. Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses 21 (2008): 25-56

In a sense of sentimental over rational (sth some people take to be opposite), this is based on the "heart" (in a poetic way). Now another issue is that various organs in the human body **do** in fact **affect** the thinking or feeling process of the brain (e.g stomach) so (at least) in **this** sense one can *think* or *feel* with the "heart" — Nikos M., Jun 18 '14 at 00:36
It is known that basic processes (which involve or affect *higher brain* processes) are based on the autonomous nervous system (and exactly this system is connected to other basic organs, like stomach, heart, kidneys, liver etc..) — Nikos M., Jun 18 '14 at 00:40

Do people think from their heart?

1 Answers1