cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/28480950

In 2015, Cookie Monster filmed a viral video titled “Simply Delicious Shower Thoughts with Cookie Monster” for the Mashable YouTube channel. In the video, he explores various New York City museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim, while pondering deep “shower thoughts” about food.

  • cravl@slrpnk.net
    8·
    6 days ago

    Not just your stomach, but your entire digestive system actually. It’s called the enteric nervous system, and it’s absolutely fascinating (the disfunction of which has recently been linked to a lot of different diseases and disorders). From Wikipedia:

    The enteric nervous system (ENS) is one of the three divisions of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), the others being the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS). The ENS is formed from the myenteric plexus, and the submucosal plexus, and consists of a mesh-like system of neurons that governs the functions of the gastrointestinal tract, including motility and secretion, and is known as the “second brain”.

    The enteric nervous system is capable of operating independently of the brain and spinal cord

    The enteric nervous system in humans consists of some 500 million neurons, 0.5% of the number of neurons in the brain, five times as many as the one hundred million neurons in the human spinal cord, and about ⅔ as many as in the whole nervous system of a cat. The enteric nervous system is embedded in the lining of the gastrointestinal system, beginning in the esophagus and extending down to the anus.

    • Narauko@lemmy.world
      2·
      5 days ago

      extending down to the anus

      Brings a whole new dimension to the phrase “shit for brains”.

      But on a somewhat more serious thought, could we possibly see evolutionary pressures for adding extra gyri folds in the digestive tract to beef up ENS neuron numbers and density? I wonder if anyone has looked into it from an evolutionary biology perspective yet.

      In the future, could we all have a secondary hind brain like they used to theorize sauropods had, or possibly turn into Krang with his android body if Gordon Ramsey is the next step of human evolution?