Any actor admits that before going on stage, he sucks in the stomach.
Yes, you yourself experienced this feeling: before the exam, applying for a job or walking along a dark deserted street. Moreover, it happens, from strong fear, and abdominal cramps (the so-called bear disease) begin.
Why is this happening? What is the connection between our nerves and the stomach? The secret is that relatively recently, another brain was discovered in humans, the so-called abdominal brain, which is connected with the two hemispheres of the brain as closely as horses in one harness. As soon as one goes wrong, the rest begin to fail.
This discovered brain, otherwise called the abdominal nervous system, is located in layers of tissue that line the inner walls of the esophagus, stomach, small intestine and colon. It is a network of neurons and various auxiliary cells exchanging signals with each other.
In a word, its structure is about the same as that of the brain, only the number of neurons here is much less, they do not form hemispheres. However, he is also able to memorize information, learn from this or that experience, and influence our emotions.
Yes, yes, often our mood, as it turned out, depends precisely on the abdominal brain, the existence of which was not suspected for so long. And many disorders in the work of the gastrointestinal tract are caused by the wrong action of the abdominal brain.
A special branch of science - neurogastroentorology, which has already made many discoveries, has taken up a new, in terms of degree of study, education. At one stage of development in the embryo, both brains develop completely independently of each other. Then a "cable" is stretched between them - the vagus nerve, and both brains develop in parallel.
To date, it has been established that there are about 100 million neurons in the abdominal brain, more than in the spinal cord, and, therefore, it has more opportunities.
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However, the first violin in the body, of course, is played by the brain. When it sends a control signal, it addresses it primarily to a few command neurons in the abdominal brain, which, in turn, transmit it to interneurons, which distribute the received command throughout the brain.
The abdominal brain itself consists of two layers, or plexuses. Here are the receptors for proteins, acids and other chemicals that regulate the digestive system.
Since both brains are connected, it is not surprising that they have the same rhythms. For example, it is known that the brain goes through several 90-minute cycles during sleep - slow sleep is replaced by fast sleep, etc.
So, if at night the intestines are empty and not busy digesting food, then it has the same one and a half hour cycle - first, a slow muscle contraction, then a fast one. And if not everything is in order with the intestines, it is not surprising that a person often has nightmares.
When a person is in danger, it is the abdominal brain that releases those hormones that tune the body to either fight or flight. Under the influence of the same hormones, the sensory nerves of the stomach are excited, hence the sucking in the stomach.