A fibrous path 'twixt heart and brain may make you swoon
A newly discovered pathway between the heart and brain can cause fainting, at least in mice.
A newly discovered pathway between the heart and brain may explain why healthy people faint.
The pathway appears to carry signals from the heart's lower pumping chambers to an area of the brainstem that controls heart rate, blood pressure and breathing, says Vineet Augustine, a neurobiologist at the University of California San Diego.
When scientists stimulate nerve cells along that pathway in mice, Augustine says, "the heart rate immediately dips, they wobble around a little
