Linda Geddes I’ve made a cup of coffee, written my to-do list and now I’m wiring up my ear to a device that will send an electrical message to my brainstem. If the testimonials are to believed, incorporating this stimulating habit into my daily routine could help to reduce stress and anxiety, curb inflammation and...
By Stephanie Pappas on July 4, 2023 Have you felt butterflies in your stomach or hunger pangs? Those “gut feelings” happen thanks to the vagus nerve, which is a superhighway that connects the brain and the gut. In recent years the vagus nerve has become an intriguing target for researchers looking to cure disorders of both the brain and the body. Vagus...
by Bianca Hermle, University of Tübingen Credit: Manu5, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons The nervous system takes in sensory stimuli, processes them and triggers reactions such as muscle movements or pain sensations. A few years ago, a network in the brain was identified that is coupled with signals from the stomach and presumably influences...
by CU Anschutz Medical Campus Credit: Spencer Bowles et al, Neuron (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2022.06.017 Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have shown a direct link between vagus nerve stimulation and its connection to the learning centers of the brain. The discovery may lead to treatments that will improve cognitive retention in both healthy and...
EUROPEAN SOCIETY OF CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES New research to be presented at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2022, Lisbon, 23-26 April) suggests that many of the symptoms connected to post-COVID syndrome (PCC, also known as long COVID) could be linked to the effect of the virus on...
