我们的心脏会跳动多少次?

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When mummifying their kings and queens, ancient Egyptians would remove the brain and all the internal organs, except for one: The heart. Believing it held all thought and feeling, the deceased would need it in the afterlife, when theyrose again.

By 2000 BC, Chinese doctors had uncovered the heart's role in pumping blood throughout the body, while Western thinkers from Aristotle to the Renaissance believed the heart governed the emotions, a notion so powerful that it still persists today, ina different form. The heart symbol's resemblance to the real thing isdebatable.

Its origins are uncertain, but we see it as far back as the 6th century BC. Coins from Cyrene, in what is now Libya, carry the familiar emblem, representing silphium, a now-extinct plant used as a cooking spice, perfume, aphrodisiac, andcontraceptive.

In the 17th century, St. Mary Margaret Alacoque reported seeing a vision of the sacred heart of Jesus, surrounded by thorns, and the symbol has since been associated with love and devotion. Today we know that love, along with all of our thoughts, desires, and emotions, comes from our brain, not our chest.

"Where is fancy bred. . . in the heart or in the head? Shall we roll on?"

I guess most people don't find it that romantic when you say"I love you with all my limbic system. But even though love lives among our neurons, we can feel it here in a very real way.

Physical pain activates the same regions of our brain as emotional loss. That neurological stress can overstimulate the body's vagus nerve, causing nausea, dizziness, and physical painreal, actual heartbreak.

It's not all bad. When we see of a loved one, our brain stimulates the release of epinephrine and norepinephrine from our adrenal glands, causing our heart to beat faster.

But yes, one can desire too much of a good thing. Heart rates of 200 to 250 beats per minute could kill you or me, but to a pygmy shrew that would feel tame.

This thumbnail-sized relative of the mole has a resting heart rate of 1300 beats per minute. About this fast.

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