The Cognitive Heart: Lecture by Prof Amna Alfaki

	The Cognitive Heart: Lecture by Prof Amna Alfaki
On Friday January 23rd, Dr. Amna Mohamed Al Faki, Professor of Pediatric & Child Health, Omdurman Islamic University - Sudan, presented a synopsis of her research on the heart as a cognitive organ and not just a pumping machine. She defined the human heart as “fundamentally a cognitive organ that processes thought, makes decisions, and interacts with the brain to produce conscious experiences”. She pointed out that the cognitive abilities of the human heart depend mainly upon i) the anatomical structures, ii) the intrinsic functions of cardiac ganglia, and iii) the intra-mural cardiac neurons. Her hypothesis -published in the Medical Hypotheses journal in 2010- suggests that the neurons in the muscular tissues of the heart have perceptive sensory functions locally in the heart like sensory neurons of the brain. Prof. AlFaki noted that cardiac information sent to the brain triggers consciousness. This is evident in the fact that the firing of cardiac neurons precedes that of the cortical neurons by a variable time period in goal-directed action or behavior in the conscious state. She noted that many educational institutions and health organization had started to use the cognitive abilities of the heart (emotions, intelligence, intuition reasoning etc.) in treating patients with post traumatic stresses and psychosis. She believes that her thesis, once backed up with concrete research results, will significantly impact how the heart is viewed. Bio Professor Amna Mohamed Al Faki is Professor of Pediatric & Child Health, Omdurman Islamic University. She is also General Manager of the Consciousness and Nervous System Sciences Organization (CANSSO), an NGO registered in Sudan. She held major positions as Director of the Omdurman Children Hospital; consultant pediatrician to the Ministry of Health, Sudan; lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Khartoum; and lecturer at the Sudan Medical Specialization Board. Prof. Al Faki graduated from Cairo University, where she received a Bachelor of Medicine, and completed her MD in pediatric and child health from the University of Khartoum in 1980. She was a scholar at the University of Liverpool from 1980-1982. She has written several papers on the heart and consciousness and attended numerous medical conferences globally. She is a member of several professional organizations in the field of Medical Research, in Sudan and abroad.