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| When Calliope Holingue was in high school, she had to give up running and bow out of social events because of severe abdominal pain and strong reactions to food. Her doctors blamed her GI distress on pre-existing mental health conditions – obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety. Now a scientist studying mental health at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Holingue thinks her GI issues may have been influencing her mental health too.
In the gut-brain connection, "the arrows go both ways,” says Glenn Treisman, a professor of psychology and medicine at Johns Hopkins. "Gut microbes make chemicals that affect your brain…and your brain can speed up your gut and change what your microbes are."
And humans can take in helpful bacteria to populate our microbiomes, by taking probiotics, or by um, other means. It sounds gross, but fecal transplants have been used for over a decade to treat gastrointestinal infections like C. diff. Now, preliminary research is underway on using fecal transplants to treat major depression and behavioral symptoms of autism.
NPR spoke with Holingue about how new research into the gut microbiome may help scientists better understand and treat mental health problems.
Plus: For stomach pain and other IBS symptoms, these apps can bring relief
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Photo illustration: Heath Korvola/Getty Images |
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The sense of being outside of your body, feeling detached from your own thoughts or your physical self, is something most people have heard stories about if not experienced. This feeling is often associated with psychoactive drugs, spirituality, or supernatural phenomena. But new research points to a scientific explanation.
A man with severe epilepsy reported these strange symptoms to Josef Parvizi, a neurologist at Stanford University. When Parvizi and his colleagues used electricity to stimulate a part of the man’s brain called the anterior precuneus, they were able to replicate those feelings. When they stimulated the brains of other epilepsy patients in the lab, those patients had out-of-body experiences too. The finding could help researchers develop forms of anesthesia that use electrical stimulation instead of drugs. Learn more about how different parts of the brain can influence, and distort, our sense of self.
Also: Scientists say a mind-bending rhythm in the brain can act like ketamine |
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| There are so many resources out there for the physical and logistical aspects of pregnancy, but not so much about how to handle the changes in your emotions and sense of self. That’s what Life Kit producer Andee Tagle learned when she found herself simultaneously thrilled to become a parent, and mourning the loss of part of her sense of self. Tagle spoke with Chelsea Conaboy, author of the book Mother Brain: How Neuroscience Is Rewriting The Story Of Parenthood to learn the science behind the mental and emotional changes that happen during pregnancy, and how to handle them. Listen now. |
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Smith Collection/Gado/Gado via Getty Images |
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We hope you enjoyed these stories. Find more of NPR's health journalism on Shots.
All our best and happy travels,
Andrea Muraskin and your NPR Health editors |
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