Do insects have extra brains/hearts due to their extra appendages?

[bugmankeith]

It got me thinking why insects need extra brains/hearts than most animals have. Extra brains to control extra body parts, but then why do octopi have one brain? Extra hearts, for what? Some insects move very slow why need extra hearts to move at a slow pace?

 

[sfpearl300z]

http://www.myfacewhen.net/uploads/954-not-sure-if-serious.jpg

 

[bugmankeith]

I'm being serious, why do insects have extra hearts and brains, for what purpose do they need more than 1 heart or brain?

 

[Perocore]

Wait....what? Since when did all the insects of Earth grow extra brains and hearts?! Haha, most insects only have one heart and one brain. Truthfully, I can think of no creature that naturally has more than one brain...some do have extra hearts though. Butterflies, for example, have two hearts. As for why some creatures have more then one heart? Well, I'm not sure, not really. However, I know that an insect's circulatory system is very, very different from a mammal's. The blood flows differently, and they don't have arteries and vessels and such, so perhaps some need two hearts to help move the blood along? Who knows! I suggest googling it

But, seriously, what makes you think anything has more than one brain?

 

[bugmankeith]

I got confused about the brain thing, but I do remember about some insects with multiple hearts. I tried googling and not much came up, so figured I'd try here.

 

[Nanotrev]

From what I remember, arthropods have one large brain, and several smaller brains to help command the rest of their bodies. I'm not sure how many there are per species but these command clusters are called ganglia if I'm right. The ganglia clusters are just that. They're a large collection of nerve cells that are smaller than the one located up in the front of the arthropod. I'll do a little bit of research and get back to you on this.

---------- Post added 09-08-2011 at 07:29 PM ----------

Living arthropods have paired main nerve cords running along their bodies below the gut, and in each segment the cords form a pair of ganglia from which sensory and motor nerves run to other parts of the segment. Although the pairs of ganglia in each segment often appear physically fused, they are connected by commissures (relatively large bundles of nerves), which give arthropod nervous systems a characteristic "ladder-like" appearance. The brain is in the head, encircling and mainly above the esophagus. It consists of the fused ganglia of the acron and one or two of the foremost segments that form the head – a total of three pairs of ganglia in most arthropods, but only two in chelicerates, which do not have antennae or the ganglion connected to them. The ganglia of other head segments are often close to the brain and function as part of it. In insects these other head ganglia combine into a pair of subesophageal ganglia, under and behind the esophagus.

-Wikipedia.

Although I'm usually very cautious in using the Wikipedia because of the high chance of misinformation the bit I pulled from it here does seem to be correct although I'm somewhat skeptical on the number of ganglia they state are inside of an arthropod though it is able to answer your question posed here.

 

[catfishrod69]

roaches have a second brain in their abdomen..chop ones head off and watch..

 

[bugmankeith]

I'm confused, some say only 1 brain, others 2, which is it? :bruised:

 

[Entomancer]

It's neither.

Insects (and many other arthropods, iirc) have bunches of nerves called ganglia that act somewhat like little "brains".

The "hearts" aren't hearts like vertebrates have. They're like pump stations for the hemolymph, the fluid inside an insect's body that conducts gas exchange. They just pump the fluid around, and they don't have one central pump like vertebrates do.

If someone finds this to be incorrect, let me know, because it's been a little bit since I looked at organ systems. I'm fairly certain that this is more or less how it worked, but I can't remember for sure.

 

[Michiel]

thanks Lord! you beat me too it.......not brains but nerve ganglia people!

 

[Nanotrev]

@LordRaiden and Michiel

Indeedy! I thought back to my zoology teacher in highschool teaching us this stuff and telling me I was wrong, and that insects did indeed have one command gangila he dubbed the brain in our tests. After some deliberation I crumbled under the authority his doctorate gave him and accepted I was probably wrong. It's nice to see that I was right four years later. I stand re-corrected thanks to the people here. Also...

Speaking of education, does anyone have one of those scorpion biology tomes? I'm very tempted to get one but they're very expensive. There's one for sale on Amazon but it's close to $400. Not cheap! I assume it would be a good read though should I wished to save up for it.

It's neither.

Insects (and many other arthropods, iirc) have bunches of nerves called ganglia that act somewhat like little "brains".

The "hearts" aren't hearts like vertebrates have. They're like pump stations for the hemolymph, the fluid inside an insect's body that conducts gas exchange. They just pump the fluid around, and they don't have one central pump like vertebrates do.

If someone finds this to be incorrect, let me know, because it's been a little bit since I looked at organ systems. I'm fairly certain that this is more or less how it worked, but I can't remember for sure.

You seem to be correct to the T to me! My memory is foggy as well, but seeing your explanation here and what was on the wiki it seems my Animal Kingdoms teacher from middle school taught us the right stuff and that my high school teacher with his doctorate was wrong though he did teach us a wealth of correct information too with just a few bumps.

 

[Perocore]

Huh, well, one of the most informing threads I've posted in So insects are brainless...*glances at crickets* Yep...

 

[bugmankeith]

Ok so now that I understand a little better, what is the purpose for multiple ganglia and pump stations. Why do insects have them, and other animals dont?

 

[Introvertebrate]

It was probably nature's first try at a nervous system and a circulatory system. As animals got bigger/more sophisticated, it made more sense to have one brain and one heart.

 

[Nanotrev]

It was probably nature's first try at a nervous system and a circulatory system. As animals got bigger/more sophisticated, it made more sense to have one brain and one heart.

If you think about it, one could call the brain a collection of ganglia though this may not be scientifically correct. Each part has a different function.

In a sense, we also retain some functions of ganglia in our spinal cord. Reflexes are made possible because the command to execute an action of high priority isn't sent to the brain. The nerves in the spinal cord sometimes make the decision for us should say, our hands come in contact with sudden extreme pain. Perhaps the ganglia in arthropods work in a similar manner while being connected so that the animal can carry out daily functions. Again, I could be blabbering nonsense but that's my take on it from such a limited understanding.