Gut – The Backup Brain

While we have always believed that our brains influenced every aspect of our lives, latest research points out there is actually a “second brain” in our stomachs, which influences our moods, decision-making, our eating habits and even the diseases that inflict us. This is known as intestinal intelligence which can explain away why we binge when depressed or stressed, why we get anxious or how we rely on our “gut instincts” when it comes to taking some decisions.

According to Michael Gershon, professor and chair of pathology and cell biology at Columbia, the gut is another independent center of integrative neural activity which can work independently of any control by the brain. Thus, it functions as a second brain. Five decades of groundbreaking work has led to the discovery of the gut’s brain, known as the enteric nervous system (ENS). When a person is under stress, he/she feels twisting of intestines and aware of the signals that the gut can send to the brain.

It is now established that the Enteric Nervous System (ENS) has about 100 million neurons; which are more than the neurons in the spinal cord but less than in the brain, are spread over an intricately folded surface area which is hundred times greater than that of skin. According to Gershon, the ENS is independent in its working as it does not need any input or signal from brain to control the movement and absorption of food through intestines. It is quite a feat since no organ in our body can work without the direction of the brain.

Research shows that the ENS holds its own and it does more than just controlling itself. It sends signals to the brain which affect feelings of stress and sadness as well as influence learning, decision-making and memory. It functions on the basis of neurotransmitters, identical to those in the brain, numbering more than 30. The ENS even manufactures them in some cases. Research studies have shown that the second brain in the gut may hold potent solutions to autism as well as providing relief from depression.

There is a close connection between emotions and the gut and the nervous system actually started out in the gut yet neuroscientists fail to comprehend the complexity of the gut or enteric nervous system and its link to the brain. The gut has a nexus of sensors to gather information and like brain; it also connects and interacts with the external stimuli. The ENS does it by way of food, which it breaks down into simpler forms and sends off to different internal organs to sustain us that helps us survive.