So I built a stegosaurus model kit, which included some factoids in the instructions. One of these factoids was that stegosaurs are not believed to have had a secondary brain in the hips to help them control their rear half after all. That was wild to me, since the whole stegosaurs and sauropods with their tiny heads needing a secondary brain for their huge bodies was commonly accepted back when I was a kid. So I looked it up, and indeed, the current hypothesis is that the cavity that the second brain was thought to occupy is used for a thing called a glycogen body. But what exactly does a glycogen body do? We’ll get back to you on that, apparently.
technically humans have a “second brain”.
your heart contains neurological tissue and a memory. does this mean your heart can have thoughts or a mind of itself? no.
neurological tissue doesn’t mean a whole brain function exists, but how else can you explain such a complex idea to a child?
your gut is also very complex (the vagus nerve in particular) and the microbes inside your digestive system can influence what food you want to eat.
yeah mine is a little too close to the surface and literally has a mind of its own. i let it take the driver’s seat once and it was not the best experience.
“why the fuck am i at the mcdonald’s parking lot?”
“and shitting at the taco bell parking lot”
Yes!
Some other organs too, to a lesser extend.
And then the whole trillions of bacteria intellectual powerhouse (I’m mostly joking, but not absolutely completely joking).
The whole peripheral nervous system makes decisions without adult supervision from the brain all the time. I’d consider that to be a sort of distributed second brain in a way