The Second Brain: How Gut Bacteria Shape Our Fears
Recent clinical trials have revealed a startling link between our digestive tract and our emotions. Investigators discovered that patients diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder often exhibit a severely depleted diversity of Bifidobacterium in their gut microbiome. This bacteria is critical for producing gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), an inhibitory neurotransmitter that dampens neural over-excitation. Using high-resolution fMRI, researchers demonstrated that when these patients were shown threatening faces, their amygdala—the brain's emotional alarm system—showed significantly higher activation compared to healthy controls, a response that normalized after a course of targeted probiotic therapy.
Adapted from a cognitive neuroscience review, 2023.
Outline two defining principles and concepts of the biological approach in psychology and briefly explain how this approach can be related to the article above.
135 exam-style questions on OCR A Level Psychology Areas, covering Social, Cognitive, Developmental, Biological, and Individual differences. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.