Overview

The brain is affected by bodily changes—including microbiome composition—that influence cognition and behavior. This eBriefing will explore the interaction between the brain, gut & microbiome, with a focus on how the microbiome influences developmental, neuropsychiatric, and immune-related disorders, including socioaffective processing disorders such as autism.

In this eBriefing, You’ll Learn:

• How the microbiome is seeded and maintained throughout life
• How stress effects health of the microbiome
• How changes in microbiome composition result in changes in behavior
• The latest research in therapies targeting microbiome

Speakers

Microbiome and Mental Health

John Cryan, PhD

University College Cork

John Cryan, PhD, is focused on understanding the interaction between brain, gut, and microbiome and how it applies to stress and immune-related disorders, including irritable bowel syndrome and obesity and neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism.  Dr. Cryan is a Professor & Chair of the Department of Anatomy & Neuroscience at the University College Cork in Ireland.  He spent four years at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research in Basel Switzerland, as a LabHead, Behavioural Pharmacology prior to joining UCC and is a Senior Editor of Neuropharmacology and Nutritional Neuroscience and an Editor of British Journal of Pharmacology.

Kirsten Tillisch, MD

University of California, Los Angeles

Kirsten Tillisch, MD, was the first to demonstrate an effect of gut microbial manipulation with probiotics on emotional brain responses. Her ongoing research is focused on the role of the mind-body connection in chronic pain syndromes as well as the effects of mindfulness, hypnotherapy, and other non-drug therapies for irritable bowel syndrome. She is the Chief of Integrative Medicine at the Greater Los Angeles VA and a Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

Further Readings