This article will effect you at the gut level. I have a gut feeling that you will learn something from this article. Reading this article feels like a sock in the gut-and so on. Popular expressions are replete with references to the gut. Things felt at the “gut level” are believed to be especially true. It is as if the gut contains a sort of ancient wisdom. What the gut does contain is bacteria-lots of it. Research increasingly suggests that the interaction between this bacteria and the brain plays a larger role in mood and behavior than previously imagined.
Dr. Siri Carpenter addressed current GI research in the September issue of the APA “Monitor.” She wrote that about 100 million neurons are embedded in the lining of the gut. Even if the neural connection between the brain and gut (vagus nerve) is severed, the gut will continue to function without regulation from the brain. The gut produces neurochemicals that affect brain function in the absence of any direct neural connection. It may be true that the gut influences the brain more than the brain influences the gut.
Most of the research cited by Dr. Carpenter is, as usual, confined to rodent populations. Scientists have been able to make the same group of mice be calm, anxious, adventurous or timid by adjusting the bacteria in their gut. They have even transplanted gut bacteria from one group of mice to another; in effect transplanting the behavioral features of each group as well. The change in rodent group behavior does not necessarily require transplanting all the bacteria within the gut. The addition or subtraction of only one bacterial strain may profoundly alter rodent behavior.
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The influence of the gut on the brain is only one side of the street. Many studies with monkeys and humans have demonstrated that elevated stress may suppress beneficial bacteria in the gut. Chronically stressed monkeys exhibit an overall decreased diversity of bacteria in their gut, which allows the harmful bacteria to flourish. These stressed-out monkeys are more susceptible to infection and inflammation within their gut. Once an infection has begun, the gut produces cytokines that promote inflammation. These inflammatory chemicals disrupt brain biochemistry in a way that may increase vulnerability to anxiety and depression. The “Monitor” article explained that more than half the people who suffer with GI disorders also suffer with clinically significant anxiety or depression. Many clinicians believe the prevalence of depression or anxiety in GI disorders is closer to seventy five percent.
This research may have a profound effect on the way clinicians treat both chronic GI distress and psychiatric problems. Psychology may become the treatment of choice for Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Some forms of depression and anxiety may be treated with an infusion of probiotic bacteria. While empirically validated treatments may be years away, it does present interesting options for the present. Those who suffer with chronic GI distress should consider treatment of their depressive or anxiety disorder symptoms, since a change in brain chemistry may decrease their physical suffering. Conversely, people who suffer with chronic anxiety and/or depression might consider a healthy change in their diet before making a trip to the shrink. If the options seem confusing…just listen to your gut.
It is not uncommon for psychologists to draw parallels between the modern computer and the ancient human brain. Nearly all the people who read this article will do so with the use of a computer. The computer allows the rapid categorization and transformation of symbolic information. The information is symbolic since it does not contain the actual perceptual information of the event, but a representation of the information encoded into standardized symbols. The symbols must be standardized, or the information could not be shared with others. The symbols must also have the capacity of accurate storage, or the computer would only be useful on an intermittent and spontaneous basis.
The ancient brain processes sensory information in a symbolic fashion, as well. It does not store holograms of what we see, smell, hear or touch, but encodes the information in proteins. Recalling the information encoded in proteins allows categorization and association of the symbols removed from the actual event. The human brain uses standardized sounds to communicate its symbols, otherwise the information could not be shared with others. The storage of symbolic information must be fairly accurate, or the human could not learn to operate effectively within a given environment.
Both the brain and computer have an architecture specialized to encode and process information, yet there are differences. There is no real equivalent of software in the human brain, as the physical architecture of the brain is altered to meet and master novel tasks. Current computers cannot alter their architecture at this point in their development, but small alterations of software can radically change the type and method of information processed. Neurotransmitters provide the closest parallel to computer software. Their respective levels in different areas of the brain may favor and flavor the information processed. The current understanding of neurotransmitter action does not allow for the sweeping changes possible with computer software. The human brain exists in a dynamic flowing relationship with the environment, whereas the computer was designed to be an assistant in this relationship.
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Currently, mental illness is most often viewed as a biological defect; similar to a diseased heart or lung. Computer scientists might regard schizophrenia and bipolar disorder as faulty hardware, and depression, anxiety and angst as buggy software. Similarly, psychosurgery has been used in the past to treat schizophrenia, and current psychiatrists modulate neurotransmitters to control depression. The former deserves little comment, and the latter has met with limited success. Neuroscientists and psychiatrists have beaten the drum of biological mental illness for decades. They have attempted changing the computer architecture in schizophrenia, and the computer software in depression. The analogy tends to fail at this point, though, largely due to the negligence of a very important relationship.
The analogy breaks down due to the dynamic relationship between humans and the environment. A person’s environment, especially their social milieu, may profoundly alter neurotransmitter levels. Chronic stress is now known to cause actual alterations in the way genes are expressed. Put another way, the environment alters the hardware and software of the human brain. The brain evolves over a lifetime, whereas the computer is largely a static entity, such that the computer/brain analogy is always inexact. To ignore the environment in the treatment of mental illness is similar to ignoring the road while driving a car. Altering the brain’s software, without altering the environment, is to ignore a major difference between computers and people. Social relationships may be an architect of human dysfunction, but also a foundation upon which we build our happiness.
Tags: Angst, Anxiety, bipolar, Bipolar Disorder, Depression, schizophrenia
Angst, Anxiety, Bipolar (manic depression), Depression, Psychology | orlandopsychcom | 
July 6, 2012 1:43 pm | 
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