3 ms·
The skepticism shown in other comments is healthy but IMO misinformed and/or misguided. This study confirms past results such as [0], which shows that adding s
by pygy_ 13y ago
The skepticism shown in other comments is healthy but IMO misinformed and/or misguided.
This study confirms past results such as [0], which shows that adding some Lactobacillus rhamnosus to the diet of mice modifies the expression of GABA receptors (the ones sensitive to bnezodiazepines, like Xanax), and reduces their anxiety (which can be assessed reliably). The effect is mediated by the vagus nerve. If the nerve is cut, the effect disappears.
In the same vein, [1] found that the pulmonary exposure to Mycobacterium vaccae promotes the growth of serotonin and norepinephin neurons in the brain of mice and makes them "less resigned" [2].
I'm sure there are plenty of similar results.
The sample is relatively small, but not inappropriate for a fMRI study. There are statistical tools adapted for these situations like SPM [3], provided they are used properly (and I wouldn't be able to assess whether or not they were).
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[0] http://www.pnas.org/content/108/38/16050 http://www.pnas.org/content/108/38/16050
[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1868963/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1868963/
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioural_despair_test http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioural_despair_test
[3] http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/spm/ http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/spm/
- robbiep 13y agoThat's really interesting, thanks for sharing. As an aside, why did you choose to use cardinal numbering rather than what I certainly would have reached for first (pun intended)? Back on point, I can't see anywhere in [1] that 5-ht neurons grow, rather they just seem to be more active. Fascinating that this happens as a response to increased antigen load to something they have been immunised against. We really are a product of so many hidden interactions with our environment
- pygy_ 13y agoFormally, ordinals start at zero too :-) [0]. We owe their latest definition to Von Neumann, but AFAIK, the former definitions were similar. Regarding 5-ht, I quoted from memory, which was apparently fuzzy... But is is indeed fascinating. -- [0] This is meta-meta-contrarianism. - The layman counts from 1 - The uptight programmer counts from zero, because Dijkstra said so (or so he thinks). - The meta-contrarian (I used to be one) says fuck it, ordinals start at one. - The meta-meta-contrarian reads Wikipedia[1], realizes he was formally wrong, and goes one step further in pedanticity, back to zero [0]. That being said, my brain prefers 1-indexing programming languages like Lua, Julia, R and Matlab... [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordinal_number http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordinal_number [0] Help! I'm stuck in a Boolean algebra[1][0]! [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boolean_algebras_canonically_defined http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boolean_algebras_canonically_de... [0] ... where xor is an addition that wraps around ...