How your gut affects your brain discussed at TERC Talk

A Gut-Feeling: How intestinal microbes modulate mood and behavior, with Melanie Gareau a physiologist at the University of California, Davis, is part of the Mental Health in the Mountains series of educational talks.

Scientists are investigating the idea that intestinal microbiota might influence brain development and behavior. Could your gut microbes influence behavior and alter brain physiology and neurochemistry? Researchers have begun drawing links between gastrointestinal pathology and psychiatric neurological conditions such as anxiety, depression, autism, schizophrenia and neurodegenerative disorders. The Human Microbiome Project, a large-scale study of the microbes that colonize humans, might help to unravel mental-health disorders.

Melanie Gareau is researching the mechanisms involved in the development of the microbiota-gut-brain axis.

Registration for this event is required. The program will begin at 6 p.m. with refreshments and no-host bar from 5:30 - 6 p.m. at 291 Country Club Drive in Incline Village (between Tahoe Boulevard/SR 28 and Lakeshore Blvd.) on the campus of Sierra Nevada College.