Scientifically speaking, yes. The heart is a muscle that beats to send blood around your body at a certain speed. The heart has memory in the sense it has DNA which is a form of memory that stores information about a person.
On a more personal note, I believe that the memories and feelings that make us human reside in the brain. Other people feel differently. There’s a poem on the GCSE English course I remember studying called Homecoming. I remember it because it sparked a very strong debate about exactly this topic in my class. I’ve attached the words below (courtesy of http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/poetarmitage/ivemadeoutawillrev1.shtml)
I’ve made out a will; I’m leaving myself
to the National Health. I’m sure they can use
the jellies and tubes and syrups and glues,
the web of nerves and veins, the loaf of brains,
and assortment of fillings and stitches and wounds,
blood – a gallon exactly of bilberry soup –
the chassis or cage or cathedral of bone;
but not the heart, they can leave that alone.
They can have the lot, the whole stock:
the loops and coils and sprockets and springs and rods,
the twines and cords and strands,
the face, the case, the cogs and the hands,
but not the pendulum, the ticker;
leave that where it stops or hangs.
Yeah, I don’t think that the heart, as a muscle, has memories or feelings as we define them. Those are chemical reactions that happen in the brain. But who knows – maybe a cardiac surgeon would disagree 🙂
That’s a really cool answer Rob! I didn’t think of a each cell having “memory”, but really they all do in a sense! The only thing I would add that is that sometimes our heart feels like it has feelings because if we feel something strongly often our heart will beat a little faster, like if we are nervous or really excited…. or in love….! So we have that physical feeling, which makes it seem like that is where the feeling is coming from, even though it is actually happening in our brains.
However, research has actually proven, that when people have heart transplants they acquire a different personalities and have memories that they did not have before. Also, sometimes if one of a couple die, the other usually dies soon after. So it could be linked to heart break?
Comments
wizzyg12 commented on :
However, research has actually proven, that when people have heart transplants they acquire a different personalities and have memories that they did not have before. Also, sometimes if one of a couple die, the other usually dies soon after. So it could be linked to heart break?
Claire commented on :
I don’t feel qualified enough to answer that! We definitely should ask someone from the medical field!
(also, I deal with subatomic particles which are much easier as they don’t have feelings! They obey all the rules, unlike humans 🙂 )