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The latest evidence for this “gut-brain axis” comes from Javier Bravo at University College Cork. He fed mice with a probiotic bacterium called Lactobacillus rhamnosus, often found in yoghurts and dairy products. The bacterial menu changed the levels of signalling chemicals in the rodents’ brains, and reduced behaviours associated with stress, anxiety and depression.

Probiotic bacteria – those that benefit their host – are the subject of sweeping, hand-waving health claims. But beneath the breathless marketing hype, there is some intriguing underlying science. For example, some trials have found that probiotics can help to alleviate the mood symptoms that accompany irritable bowel or chronic fatigue syndrome. To that end, Bravo wanted to see if L.rhamnosus could influence the brains of normal, healthy animals.

Bravo found that his mice, after regularly eating Lactobacillus, were more likely to spend time in the exposed parts of a maze (a common test for anxiety symptoms) than those who ate bacteria-free meals. They were also less likely to drift motionlessly when plopped into water (a common test for depressive symptoms). And during stressful situations, they built up lower levels of stress hormones.

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It may seem odd that bacteria in an animal’s gut can control what happens in its brain, on the other side of the body. But the two organs have a direct line between them – the long, branching vagus nerve, which transmits information from the gut and other visceral organs to the brain. When Bravo severed the vagus nerve in his mice, Lactobacillus lost all of its influence. It changed neither the rodents’ behaviour nor their GABA receptor levels.

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A startling archaeological discovery that may have gone un-noticed changes our understanding of human history. While, up until now, scholars have largely held that man's first rituals were carried out over 40,000 years ago in Europe, it now appears that they were wrong about both the time and place.



Associate Professor Sheila Coulson, from the University of Oslo, has shown that modern humans, Homo sapiens, have performed advanced rituals in Africa for 70,000 years. She has, in other words, discovered mankind's oldest known ritual.

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"Stone age people took these colorful spearheads, brought them to the cave, and finished carving them there. Only the red spearheads were burned. It was a ritual destruction of artifacts. There was no sign of normal habitation. No ordinary tools were found at the site. Our find means that humans were more organized and had the capacity for abstract thinking at a much earlier point in history than we have previously assumed. All of the indications suggest that Tsodilo has been known to mankind for almost 100,000 years as a very special place in the pre-historic landscape." says Sheila Coulson.

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"The shaman, who is still a very important person in San culture, could have kept himself hidden in that secret chamber. He would have had a good view of the inside of the cave while remaining hidden himself. When he spoke from his hiding place, it could have seemed as if the voice came from the snake itself. The shaman would have been able to control everything. It was perfect."