401002 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Gut Flora, Enteric Nervous System, Autonomic Nervous System

• School: UWS
• Department: University of Western Sydney
• Course: 401002
• Professor: unknown

Document Summary

The gut brain axis is the biochemical signalling that takes place between the gastrointestinal tract (gi tract) and the central nervous system (cns). The first of the brain gut interactions shown, was the cephalic phase of digestion, in the release of gastric and pancreatic secretions in response to sensory signals, such as the smell and sight of food. Studies with humans measuring variations in gut flora between people with various psychiatric and neurological conditions or when stressed, or measuring effects of various probiotics had generally been small and were just beginning to be generalized. Whether changes to gut flora are a result of disease, a cause of disease, or both in any number of possible feedback loops in the gut brain axis, remained unclear. The gut flora is the complex community of microorganisms that live in the digestive tracts of humans and other animals. The gut metagenome is the aggregate of all the genomes of gut microbiota.