Listening to the brain below

Ever since the Columbia University anatomy professor Michael Gershon launched the field of neurogastroenterology, in 1999, by pointing out that the human gastrointestinal tract is home to some hundred million neurons, scientists have been amassing evidence of the so-called gut-brain connection, the hardwired link between emotion and digestion. An entire spectrum of feelings, from fullness to anxiety, has been shown to originate in the stomach before bubbling up into consciousness. Until earlier this year, though, it wasn’t clear precisely how gut sensations become brain-bound nerve impulses.

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