Hi

In your opinions, which one of our body plays the most important role in living:
neural system (brain and all its companions..)
blood circulation system (heart, blood veins, etc)

They both play very important but completely different roles in our life. One seems to be there simply for the purpose of keeping us alive (circulatory system) whereas the other gives u the ability to think, sense and feel.

Depends on what u mean by important?!

They both serve equal purpose...though the heart does a lot simpler task of just providing the oxygen to the brain.


it's like a car really - The heart is the wheel....sure it is round and just specially formulated rubber whose only task is too spin...but without the tires that hotshot, spanking fast engine of your ain't going anywhere.

The heart may be the wheels, but the brain is the driver. You can have the most expensive tires in existance, but without a driver it is pointless.

In my opinion, our consciousness is ONLY reason for existance.

- KitNyx

A "brain dead" man can be kept "alive" somehow if his heart is still pumping.

I don't know how to keep someone alive if there is no blood flow in his body.

i wonder a brain dead man can be considered alive if his heart is still pumping. it is also possible that with out heart (with the aid of cardiopulmonary bypass - the heart-lung machine in place of heart) too the blood circulation can be maintained. can we consider this man is still alive ?

as per the medical ethics brain death is consider to be the proper death. during heart transplants they remove a healthy heart from the donor who is brain dead and fit that in place of the faulty heart of the patient. during the transplant, the blood circulation is maintained with the help of heart-lung machine (cardiopulmonary bypass).

personally it is difficult for me to consider a person as dead with a beating heart and dead brain.

Hmm, yep, I see it's hard to choose between 'food' and 'control'.
Beatless heart will provide no food for brain, but dead brain will render someone unable to do anything on his will.
But if I remember correctly, heart nerves are not connected to brain, or are they?

Some nerves are, some aren't. The pacemaker cells within the heart automatically fire at a constant rate by a feedback process, around 80-100 beats per minute. Within the brain the medulla oblongata receives and processes information on the circulatory system, and modulates heart rate via the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, which increase and decrease the rate respectively. The parasympathetic system normally dominates, the resting heart rate reduced to around 70-80 bpm. They do this by changing the permeability of the neurons within the heart. Hormones can directly affect the heart in the same way.

The mind must be more valuable, as we are always trying to give our heart away.

but it is hard to misplace your heart. on the other hand there are plenty of careless people who lose their minds all the time.

But more people end up clogging their heart then losing their mind. Heart problems far outdo Mental problems in their abundance.

speaking of, me pa just had a massive heart attack. he still has it but it's more darth vader than anakin now.

more people give away their hearts. that can only be an indication of how important it is. you give away something of meaning as a gift. but losing a body part? that is careless indeed. your mind must not be worth very much. nobody gives their brain as a gift, they just lose it.

Who cares? One 'dies' without the other. What is more important: the fuel that runs the engine, or the egine that runs on the fuel?

yup. in the context of the functioning human, both are equally important.

thus the trend towards ignoring the original question. it's absurd.

You mean by you posting something completely unrelated to the question or what?

Yes, as we already have started to do so..........wes in bio forum....gosh darnit.

I didn't even notice.

I shall banish myself immediately.