MicroFactzzz#0035 · 🧬 Human Glitch
Your Gut Contains a Nerve Network Bigger Than Your Spinal Cord's
The enteric nervous system packs hundreds of millions of neurons and can operate independently of the brain — which is why it's called the "second brain."
The walls of your digestive tract are densely packed with neurons forming what's called the enteric nervous system — a self-sufficient network that can control digestion even after its connections to the brain and spinal cord are severed.
The number of neurons in the gut is estimated to be comparable to the spinal cord's, making it one of the largest clusters of nervous tissue outside the brain itself.
This "second brain" communicates with the first one both ways through the vagus nerve, and most of the signal traffic actually flows from gut to brain, not the other way around — one reason stress and emotion are felt so strongly "in the gut."
Scientists are still working out exactly how gut health affects mood, but the sheer existence of such an elaborate, semi-autonomous nerve network in your digestive tract is startling enough on its own.
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- General knowledge / encyclopedic sources
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Krulicza Nora
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