Is bacterial chatter behind mental illness, obesity?
March 24th, 2011 - 1:19 pm ICT by IANSToronto, March 24 (IANS) The chatter between bugs present in your gut and your brain plays a key role in bringing on psychiatric illness, intestinal diseases and obesity among others.
This “communication of the body and the brain influence metabolic disorders, such as obesity and diabetes”, says Jane Foster, associate professor in psychiatry and behavioural neurosciences at McMaster University.
“We have a hypothesis in my lab that the state of your immune system and your gut bacteria - which are in constant communication - influences your personality,” Foster said.
Using germ-free mice, Foster’s research shows gut bugs influence how the brain is wired for learning and memory, the journal Neurogastroenterology and Motility reports.
The study’s results show that genes linked to learning and memory are altered in germ-free mice and, in particular, they are altered in one of the key brain regions for learning and memory - the hippocampus, according to a McMaster’s statement.
Foster’s lab is in the Brain-Body Institute, a joint research initiative of McMaster University and St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton.
The institute was created to advance understanding of the relationship between the brain, nervous system and bodily disorders.
Foster said psychiatrists, in particular, are interested in her research because of the problems of side-effects with current drug therapy.
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Tags: behavioural neurosciences, brain regions, free mice, germ, gut bacteria, hippocampus, intestinal diseases, jane foster, key role, learning and memory, mcmaster university, mental illness, metabolic disorders, motility, neurogastroenterology, obesity, psychiatric illness, psychiatrists, research initiative, toronto march