Giraffe have unusually high heart rates for their size, at 150 beats per minute. When the animal lowers its head the blood rushes down fairly unopposed and a rete mirabile in the upper neck, with its large cross sectional area, prevents excess blood flow to the brain. When it raises again, the blood vessels constrict and direct blood into the brain so the animal does not faint. The jugular veins contain several (most commonly seven) valves to prevent blood flowing back into the head from the inferior vena cava and right atrium while the head is lowered. Conversely, the blood vessels
Blood–brain barrier more likely, aggravated) by a breakdown in the blood–brain barrier. Cerebral edema is the accumulation of excess water in the extracellular space of the brain, which can result when hypoxia causes the blood–brain barrier to open. Many neurodegenerative diseases including synucleinopathies such as Parkinson's, and tauopathies such as Alzheimer's are thought to result from seeded misfolding from pathological extracellular protein variants known as prions. This prion-like hypothesis is gaining support in numerous studies in vitro and involving in vivo intracerebral injection of brain lysates, extracted protein (tau, alpha-synuclein) and synthetically generated fibers in alpha-synucleinopathies. These proteins are also detectable in