header image

[Sign Up Now] to Receive Our FREE Daily SCVTV-SCVNews Digest by E-Mail

Inside
Weather


 
Calendar
Today in
S.C.V. History
November 21
1967 - Local voters approve formation of community college and elect COC's first five-member board - Dr. William G. Bonelli Jr., Bruce Fortine, Sheila Dyer, Peter Huntsinger, Edward Muhl [story]
COC board


Dr. Kirsten Tillisch

Dr. Kirsten Tillisch

UCLA researchers now have the first evidence that bacteria ingested in food can affect brain function in humans. In an early proof-of-concept study of healthy women, they found that women who regularly consumed beneficial bacteria known as probiotics through yogurt showed altered brain function, both while in a resting state and in response to an emotion-recognition task.

The study, conducted by scientists with UCLA’s Gail and Gerald Oppenheimer Family Center for Neurobiology of Stress and the Ahmanson–Lovelace Brain Mapping Center at UCLA, appears in the current online edition of the peer-reviewed journal Gastroenterology.

The discovery that changing the bacterial environment, or microbiota, in the gut can affect the brain carries significant implications for future research that could point the way toward dietary or drug interventions to improve brain function, the researchers said.

“Many of us have a container of yogurt in our refrigerator that we may eat for enjoyment, for calcium or because we think it might help our health in other ways,” said Dr. Kirsten Tillisch, an associate professor of medicine at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine and lead author of the study. “Our findings indicate that some of the contents of yogurt may actually change the way our brain responds to the environment. When we consider the implications of this work, the old sayings ‘you are what you eat’ and ‘gut feelings’ take on new meaning.”

Researchers have known that the brain sends signals to the gut, which is why stress and other emotions can contribute to gastrointestinal symptoms. This study shows what has been suspected but until now had been proved only in animal studies: that signals travel the opposite way as well.

“Time and time again, we hear from patients that they never felt depressed or anxious until they started experiencing problems with their gut,” Tillisch said. “Our study shows that the gut–brain connection is a two-way street.”

The small study involved 36 women between the ages of 18 and 55. Researchers divided the women into three groups: one group ate a specific yogurt containing a mix of several probiotics — bacteria thought to have a positive effect on the intestines — twice a day for four weeks; another group consumed a dairy product that looked and tasted like the yogurt but contained no probiotics; and a third group ate no product at all.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans conducted both before and after the four-week study period looked at the women’s brains in a state of rest and in response to an emotion-recognition task in which they viewed a series of pictures of people with angry or frightened faces and matched them to other faces showing the same emotions. This task, designed to measure the engagement of affective and cognitive brain regions in response to a visual stimulus, was chosen because previous research in animals had linked changes in gut flora to changes in affective behaviors.

The researchers found that, compared with the women who didn’t consume the probiotic yogurt, those who did showed a decrease in activity in both the insula — which processes and integrates internal body sensations, like those form the gut — and the somatosensory cortex during the emotional reactivity task.

Further, in response to the task, these women had a decrease in the engagement of a widespread network in the brain that includes emotion-, cognition- and sensory-related areas. The women in the other two groups showed a stable or increased activity in this network.

During the resting brain scan, the women consuming probiotics showed greater connectivity between a key brainstem region known as the periaqueductal grey and cognition-associated areas of the prefrontal cortex. The women who ate no product at all, on the other hand, showed greater connectivity of the periaqueductal grey to emotion- and sensation-related regions, while the group consuming the non-probiotic dairy product showed results in between.

The researchers were surprised to find that the brain effects could be seen in many areas, including those involved in sensory processing and not merely those associated with emotion, Tillisch said.

The knowledge that signals are sent from the intestine to the brain and that they can be modulated by a dietary change is likely to lead to an expansion of research aimed at finding new strategies to prevent or treat digestive, mental and neurological disorders, said Dr. Emeran Mayer, a professor of medicine, physiology and psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the study’s senior author.

“There are studies showing that what we eat can alter the composition and products of the gut flora — in particular, that people with high-vegetable, fiber-based diets have a different composition of their microbiota, or gut environment, than people who eat the more typical Western diet that is high in fat and carbohydrates,” Mayer said. “Now we know that this has an effect not only on the metabolism but also affects brain function.”

The UCLA researchers are seeking to pinpoint particular chemicals produced by gut bacteria that may be triggering the signals to the brain. They also plan to study whether people with gastrointestinal symptoms such as bloating, abdominal pain and altered bowel movements have improvements in their digestive symptoms which correlate with changes in brain response.

Meanwhile, Mayer notes that other researchers are studying the potential benefits of certain probiotics in yogurts on mood symptoms such as anxiety. He said that other nutritional strategies may also be found to be beneficial.

By demonstrating the brain effects of probiotics, the study also raises the question of whether repeated courses of antibiotics can affect the brain, as some have speculated. Antibiotics are used extensively in neonatal intensive care units and in childhood respiratory tract infections, and such suppression of the normal microbiota may have long-term consequences on brain development.

Finally, as the complexity of the gut flora and its effect on the brain is better understood, researchers may find ways to manipulate the intestinal contents to treat chronic pain conditions or other brain related diseases, including, potentially, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and autism.

Answers will be easier to come by in the near future as the declining cost of profiling a person’s microbiota renders such tests more routine, Mayer said.

The study was funded by Danone Research. Mayer has served on the company’s scientific advisory board. Three of the study authors (Denis Guyonnet, Sophie Legrain-Raspaud and Beatrice Trotin) are employed by Danone Research and were involved in the planning and execution of the study (providing the products) but had no role in the analysis or interpretation of the results.

UCLA’s Oppenheimer Family Center for Neurobiology of Stress is an NIH-funded multidisciplinary, translational research program partially supported by philanthropy. Its mission is to identify the role of the brain in health and medical disease.  The Center is comprised of several research programs which focus on the interactions of the brain with the digestive, cardiovascular and urological systems, chronic pain and mind brain body interactions.

Comment On This Story
COMMENT POLICY: We welcome comments from individuals and businesses. All comments are moderated. Comments are subject to rejection if they are vulgar, combative, or in poor taste.
REAL NAMES ONLY: All posters must use their real individual or business name. This applies equally to Twitter account holders who use a nickname.

0 Comments

You can be the first one to leave a comment.

Leave a Comment


HIGHER EDUCATION LINKS
LOCAL COLLEGE HEADLINES
Wednesday, Nov 20, 2024
Art, in whatever the medium, can communicate so much. It can inspire imagination, exude peace and calm, or tell the world the stories of a community and a culture or connect on an extremely personal level.
Wednesday, Nov 20, 2024
Every day for decades, NASA satellites have been collecting data about oceans and continents around the world.
Wednesday, Nov 20, 2024
Music possesses power. It brings people together, stirs emotions and has ability to heal in the form of music therapy. 
Thursday, Nov 14, 2024
College of the Canyons will host a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Speaker Series on Friday, Nov. 22 in an effort to engage, inform and inspire students interested in pursuing careers in STEM fields.
Wednesday, Nov 13, 2024
The 39th Annual CSUN Powwow will take place on Saturday, Nov. 30, to celebrate the American Indian communities living in L.A. Country and throughout Southern California.
Keep Up With Our Facebook

Latest Additions to SCVNews.com
Celebrate this special time of year with the 29th annual Winter Magic Lighted Boat Parade and holiday event Saturday, Dec. 7 at Castaic Lake, Lower Lagoon.
Dec. 7: The 29th Annual Winter Magic Lighted Boat Parade
1967 - Local voters approve formation of community college and elect COC's first five-member board - Dr. William G. Bonelli Jr., Bruce Fortine, Sheila Dyer, Peter Huntsinger, Edward Muhl [story]
COC board
You can make a difference in a child or teen’s life this holiday season through the Boys and Girls Club of the Santa Clarita Valley. You can volunteer at a club holiday event, host a toy drive, sponsor a club family or make a donation.
Hope for the Holidays with Boys & Girls Club of SCV
Art, in whatever the medium, can communicate so much. It can inspire imagination, exude peace and calm, or tell the world the stories of a community and a culture or connect on an extremely personal level.
Kalli Arte Collective to be CSUN’s First Orndorff Artist-in-Residence
The city of Santa Clarita invites community members to attend the unveiling of the newest inductees to the Walk of Western Stars.
Nov. 23: New Honorees Inducted into Walk of Western Stars
Supervisor Kathryn Barger issued the following statement this afternoon, commenting on Attorney General Rob Bonta’s announcement that he filed a joint motion with the County of Los Angeles today to pursue additional monitoring and strengthened protections for youth in Los Angeles County’s juvenile halls:
Barger Statement on Protections for Youth in Juvenile Halls
Every day for decades, NASA satellites have been collecting data about oceans and continents around the world.
CSUN Students ExamNASA Data on Climate Change
Kick off your holidays with a night to remember with the Santa Clarita Symphony Orchestra.
Dec. 8: Santa Clarita Symphony Orchestra Presents Holiday Classics
Music possesses power. It brings people together, stirs emotions and has ability to heal in the form of music therapy. 
CSUN Music Therapy Program Produces Successful Music Therapists for 40 Years
SCV Water recently reached several important milestones to bring the Agency one step closer to constructing a permanent water supply for Los Angeles Residential Community and Lily of the Valley Mobile Village.
SCV Water Works on Permanent Water Supply for LARC Ranch, Lily of the Valley
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Missing Person Unit is advising At-Risk Missing Person, Susan Lynn Emrick, has been located.
Update: LOCATED LASD Seeks Public Help to Find At-Risk Missing Newhall Woman
1831 - Local entrepreneurs Sanford and Cyrus Lyon (as in Lyons Avenue) born in Machias, Maine [story]
Sanford Lyon
The holiday season is a time for joy, generosity and community spirit. This year, the Child & Family Center invites you to join its heartwarming effort to bring extra cheer to Santa Clarita Valley teens in need.
Spread Holiday Cheer: Support SCV Teens with Child & Family Center
The non-profit Rancho Camulos Museum and National Historic Landmark will host a fundraising event, "Early Hollywood and its Camulos Connection" featuring Marc Wanamaker on Sunday, Dec. 8 at 2 p.m.
Dec. 8: Presentation on Early Hollywood, Rancho Camulos Connection
William S. Hart Union High School District Social Worker Sarah Gilberts was named California’s 2024 State Social Worker of the Year at an awards ceremony on Nov. 8, part of the 2024 National Association of Social Workers-CA Annual Conference.
Hart District Sarah Gilberts Named 2024 California Social Worker of the Year
SCV Water recently marked the completion of its third PFAS treatment facility, which serves its Santa Clara and Honby wells and is located north of Soledad Canyon Road on Furnivall Avenue, with a ribbon cutting on Tuesday, Nov. 19.
SCV Water Celebrates PFAS Groundwater Treatment Facility with Ribbon Cutting
Caltrans, the California Highway Patrol, the Office of Traffic Safety and the Department of Motor Vehicles have joined together as part of Crash Responder Safety Week Nov. 18-22 to remind drivers to move over when safe to do so and slow down near traffic incidents and work zones to prevent serious injuries and deaths on California’s roadways.
Nov. 18-22: Crash Responder Safety Week
Every holiday season the Michael Hoefflin Foundation for Children’s Cancer assemblies gift baskets for families battling pediatric cancer.
MHF Seeks Donations for Holiday Gift Baskets
Family Promise of Santa Clarita Valley opened its new resource center, Williams Hope House in Newhall on Tuesday, Nov. 12 with a formal ribbon cutting ceremony.
Family Promise of SCV Opens Resource Center
The California Highway Patrol has announced a major achievement in its ongoing recruitment efforts as it officially swears in 121 new officers, bringing the department past its goal of hiring over 1,000 officers.
CHP Marks Milestone with 1,000 New Officers
The installation of the 2025 Valley Industry Association Board of Directors will be held Friday, Dec. 13, 11:45 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at the Dr. Dianne G. Van Hook University Center.
Dec. 13: VIA 2025 Board Installation
Single Mothers Outreach's Adopt-A-Family was born in hopes of providing hard-working single parents a way to make a warm and wonderful holiday memory with their children. AAF connects a generous individual, corporate community, or groups with deserving families in need. Many local businesses, churches, community groups, neighbors and individuals generously have “adopted” SMO parents and their children, providing them with gifts, ice-skating, parties and more.
Single Mothers Outreach Adopt-A-Family Donation Drive
Educational Results Partnership, a non-profit organization that applies data science to accelerate student success, has released the 2024 Honor Roll list of California’s top performing schools, in partnership with local business leaders and the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce.
SCV Chamber Announces Schools Named to Honor Roll List
Holiday Home Tour will continue the festivities with its Holiday Home Tour Boutique, sponsored by Williams Homes that will take place on Sunday, Dec. 8, at Williams Ranch model homes in Hasley Canyon.
Dec. 8: Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital Holiday Home Tour Boutique
SCVNews.com