Hiccups Come From Your Fish Brain

Posted on February 26th, 2008 by Carlos

You’ve heard of the Lizard Brain (Medulla) and the Leopard Brain (cerebellum), but have you accessed your fish brain lately? If you’ve hiccuped you have, according to Neil Shubin of the University of Chicago. Courtesy of Wired’s Blog:

Hiccups are triggered by electric signals generated in the brain stem. Amphibian brain stems emit similar signals, which control the regular motion of their gills. Our brain stems, inherited from amphibian ancestors, still spurt out odd signals producing hiccups that are, according to Shubin, essentially the same phenomenon as gill breathing.

Well, um, okay, but they do still come from somewhere, right? I have friends who get hiccups when they drink too much. They get the hiccups a lot. And everyone’s gotten them after a heaping helping of PB&J, right? Is the idea that, when our throats get clogged (e.g. with food) that we try to breathe through gills that don’t exist anymore, because we’re humans now? That actually makes me a little sad!

Wired has a link to some funny hiccup recipes. The one I have seen work consistently is a heaping spoonful of sugar. I am kind of curious about the shot of vinegar and the vinegary derivations thereof (e.g. sucking a pickle). Hmm … PB&J is sounding pretty good right now.