Human Emotions Really Are Affected by Gut Bacteria, by PETER DOCKRILL

The more we find out about the bacteria that live in our gut, the more we're coming to realise how these microbiota could have an impact on every facet of our lives – and not just our physical health and well-being, but our thoughts and emotions too.A new study has identified associations between two kinds of gut microbiota and how they affect people's emotional responses, and the researchers say it's the first evidence of behavioural differences related to microbial composition in healthy humans.Up until now, most research looking into how gut organisms influence emotionshas been conducted on animals, with scientists finding that the bacterial composition of rodent guts can have an effect on the animals' behaviour.Now, a team led by gastroenterologist Kirsten Tillisch at UCLA has shown that the same kind of associations appear to be affecting human emotional reactions.The researchers took faecal samples from 40 healthy women between the ages of 18 and 55. When the samples were analysed, the participants were divided into two groups based on their microbiota composition.One of the groups showed a greater abundance of a bacterium genus called Bacteroides, while the other group demonstrated more clusters of a genus called Prevotella.Next, the team scanned the brains of the participants via functional magnetic resonance imaging, while showing them images designed to provoke a positive, negative, or neutral emotional response.What the researchers found was that the group with greater abundance of Bacteroides in their gut bacteria showed greater thickness of the grey matter in the frontal cortex and insula – brain regions which process complex information – and also a larger volume of the hippocampus, which is involved with memory.The findings are reported in Psychosomatic Medicine: Journal of Behavioral Medicine.http://www.sciencealert.com/new-findings-suggest-human-emotions-really-are-affected-by-gut-bacteriaI Am Harmony by AF