Neuroscience

The heart plays a hidden role in our mental health

The organ sends messages to the brain. How those signals influence it is still unclear

Illustration of the human body from the chest up showing connections between the brain and heart, with additional brain and heart iconography in the background

Messages that the heart sends to the brain could hold clues to understanding mental health disorders and what drives consciousness.

Christian Gralingen

By Laura Sanders

Everyone knows that the brain influences the heart.

Stressful thoughts can set the heart pounding, sometimes with such deep force that we worry people can hear it. Anxiety can trigger the irregular skittering of atrial fibrillation. In more extreme and rarer cases, emotional turmoil from a shock — the death of a loved one, a cancer diagnosis, an intense argument — can trigger a syndrome that mimics a heart attack.