The process of digestion is not voluntary but involuntary(in other words, you do not have to think "I have to secret stomach acid right now to digest the chicken I just had.").
When you swallow something, or even think about swallowing something, certain hormone is automatically secreted by the digestive tract not requiring certain commands from your brain. However, after the meal, the brain affects your metabolism by slowing down your heart beat and increase the movement of the tract and the secretion of hormones or enzymes.
The other way brain can affect your metabolism is when you haven’t had meals for long time. Your brain tells you, "I’m starving," and starts thinking about eating something. then your stomach produces gastric acid even though there is no food in it. Such strong acid can damage the stomach wall if the stomach does not contain any food in it. That’s why you sometimes have pain in your stomach when you are really hungry.
If you had no idea what the heck I was talking about, this is the conclusion. Your brain can help you realize you are hungry and help you digest food more easily, but it does not mean that your brain has dominant control over your digestive tract(your brain does not have to give specific commands to the tracts in order for them to digest something).
I know my words are confusing but I hope it helped. =)
How does a brain control eating/drinking?
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February 27th, 2010 at 6:11 am
The process of digestion is not voluntary but involuntary(in other words, you do not have to think "I have to secret stomach acid right now to digest the chicken I just had.").
When you swallow something, or even think about swallowing something, certain hormone is automatically secreted by the digestive tract not requiring certain commands from your brain. However, after the meal, the brain affects your metabolism by slowing down your heart beat and increase the movement of the tract and the secretion of hormones or enzymes.
The other way brain can affect your metabolism is when you haven’t had meals for long time. Your brain tells you, "I’m starving," and starts thinking about eating something. then your stomach produces gastric acid even though there is no food in it. Such strong acid can damage the stomach wall if the stomach does not contain any food in it. That’s why you sometimes have pain in your stomach when you are really hungry.
If you had no idea what the heck I was talking about, this is the conclusion. Your brain can help you realize you are hungry and help you digest food more easily, but it does not mean that your brain has dominant control over your digestive tract(your brain does not have to give specific commands to the tracts in order for them to digest something).
I know my words are confusing but I hope it helped. =)
References :
ap bio text book =P