@article{article_209432, title={COULDN’T HEART BE MORE THAN A PUMP?}, journal={The Medical Journal of Mustafa Kemal University}, volume={1}, pages={31–34}, year={2015}, author={Nacar, Ahmet}, keywords={SA node, heart transplantation, neurocardiac interaction, emotion}, abstract={<p> <span style="font-size:12px;">Based on the 1) personality changes observed following heart transplantations; 2) the two-way, dynamic, ongoing dialog between </span> <span style="font-size:12px;">the brain and the heart and its reflection as alterations in heart rate variability; 3) the prominent role of amygdala in cardiovascular </span> <span style="font-size:12px;">regulation during rapid eye movement sleep and 4) the importance of rapid eye movement sleep in the developing brain to establish </span> <span style="font-size:12px;">proper neuronal circuits and its memory consolidation effect; 5) the role of cardiac neural crest cells in heart development and 6) the </span> <span style="font-size:12px;">effects of Atrial and Brain Natriuretic Peptides; I hypothesize that the heart, particularly the SA node, could function in emotional </span> <span style="font-size:12px;">memory processing and storage in collaboration with related brain regions. Moreover, intervention to SA node in certain psychiatric </span> <span style="font-size:12px;">diseases with underlying unwanted memories and life experiences could be a novel choice of therapy.  </span> <br /> </p>}, number={1}, publisher={Hatay Mustafa Kemal University}