Our just graduated PhD student Elaine Hsiao recently gave a superb 5 minute talk at Caltech’s TEDx event on her work on gut-brain connections related to autism: Mind Altering Microbes. [click on that title to see the talk][click on the empty space below to see her picture; I don’t know why it is not showing up normally]
Infectious Behavior 
For me the talk was most interesting and novel.I had wondered about the role of the gut in mental disorder and know the effect of gut nerve stimulation is huge-I never thought about it in this way – I was only thinking of the effect of gut discomfort on test performance and introspection!
Sorry,I forgot to say – I was considering persistent gut stimulation and the effect on behaviour and the induction of hyperawareness. I find your talk most interesting – unless you have suffered from mental distress you can have no idea of how important good gut function is – I tend to think the gut flora are profoundly affected in distress,maybe due to acidity and other conditions.At on time I believed the gut was the major factor in my own condition.
Found this very interesting! Helps with my curiosity of why my son loss his dysgraphia (difficulty with handwriting) after being on acutane medicine for acne. Makes you wonder what the GMO’s are doing to our gut and brain health!
Shared on Facebook 🙂 Paul Whiteley steered me in your direction. I’m an undergrad in science at Sac State hoping to go to grad school to research this exact topic. The gut-brain connection has been a passion of mine for many years, ever since my son had a frightening regression as a toddler that we “treated” with enzymes/probiotics/fermented foods plus diet change. We reversed his issues – he is 6 years old now and neurotypical. I’m excited to see so much research coming out to support what moms like myself suspected many years ago. I also hope to be able to contribute to that research someday. I’m planning to be at your UC Davis MIND institute lecture next month, looking forward to your talk.
Thx Heather. I look forward to meeting you at the UCD talk. Cheers, PHP