{"id":778761,"date":"2026-07-22T23:15:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T23:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/778761\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T23:15:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T23:15:12","slug":"the-heart-has-a-little-brain-and-it-protects-against-stress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/778761\/","title":{"rendered":"The heart has a \u2018little brain\u2019 \u2014 and it protects against stress"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Coloured<\/p>\n

One set of neurons helps the heart (pictured, heart of a mouse) to keep beating steadily and another set buffers the heartbeat against acute stress.Credit: Steve Gschmeissner\/Science Photo Library<\/p>\n

Every heartbeat<\/a> is choreographed not just by the brain but also by a mysterious nervous system embedded in the heart itself. Now, scientists studying mice have started to unravel how this complex system works to keep the heart beating steadily even at times of extreme stress \u2014 findings that challenge the classic view that all cardiac neurons are alike.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe key is to keep the heart functional no matter what happens. Because if the pump function stops, you will die,\u201d says Rui Chang, a neuroscientist at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, and co-author of the new paper.<\/p>\n

The findings, published today in Cell1<\/a>, could inform better treatments for heart disease.<\/p>\n

Heart of the matter<\/p>\n

Like the gut\u2019s widely recognized \u2018second brain\u2019, the heart contains a mini-brain of its own \u2014 known, more formally, as the intrinsic cardiac nervous system. This network of neurons is embedded in the fat pad surrounding the heart. The system\u2019s neurons exchange messages with the brain and with each other, and are the final players in a long chain of neurons that controls cardiac function. But because intrinsic cardiac neurons are exceedingly rare, making up only about 0.01% of the cells in a piece of heart tissue, their precise roles have been hard to pin down, says Chang.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Damage from a heart attack comes from brain signals, mouse study suggests<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

To fill that gap, his team genetically engineered mice to label all of the animals\u2019 cardiac neurons. The scientists sequenced genes isolated from these neurons and identified markers for two neuronal subtypes. They then used techniques such as high-resolution imaging to identify the genetically distinct subtypes\u2019 core functions and to map their locations.<\/p>\n

Stimulating one population, called Npy+ neurons, lowered the animals\u2019 heart rates; destroying it caused heart failure and death. These results suggest that Npy+ neurons can put the brakes on a racing heart, but are also necessary to keep it beating.<\/p>\n

Stress protection<\/p>\n

The second subtype, Ddah1+ neurons, proved more mysterious: neither stimulating nor eliminating them seemed to make a difference to the mice. \u201cThey didn\u2019t seem to care,\u201d says Chang. \u201cThey lived a long time. It was very puzzling.\u201d<\/p>\n

But one day, Qian Xu, a graduate student in the laboratory and study co-author, was taking the blood pressure of a mouse without Ddah1+ neurons. She watched it die mid-measurement. The team found that two-thirds of the mice without functional Ddah1+ neurons died while having their blood pressure taken. Control animals were unaffected. \u201cImmediately before the animal dies, there\u2019s a sudden drop in heart rate, and it never recovers,\u201d says Chang.<\/p>\n

The researchers suspected that stress was a trigger \u2014 each mouse had been restrained in a narrow tube with a cuff on its tail \u2014 and tried stressing the animals in a variety of ways. Again, most died. Removing Ddah1+ neurons seemed to leave the heart more vulnerable to stress. Conversely, stimulating the neurons improved survival in stressed mice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One set of neurons helps the heart (pictured, heart of a mouse) to keep beating steadily and another…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[109853,1159,1160,1337,79],"class_list":["post-778761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-cardiovascular-biology","tag-humanities-and-social-sciences","tag-multidisciplinary","tag-neuroscience","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}