Microbes and the Mind: How Bacteria Shape Affect, Neurological Processes, Cognition, Social Relationships, Development, and Pathology

Smith, Leigh K.; Wissel, Emily F.

doi:10.1177/1745691618809379

Cited by 33 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 198 publications

(237 reference statements)

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“…What we think of as a human is not entirely or even mostly human-a body contains roughly the same number of bacterial and human cells [108]. Among other things, their interplay affects our ability to learn and think, as well as our moods and social interactions [109,110].…”

Section: Species-niche Co-evolution and Self-identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Science-Driven Societal Transformation, Part I: Worldview

Boik

2020

Sustainability

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Humanity faces serious social and environmental problems, including climate change and biodiversity loss. Increasingly, scientists, global policy experts, and the general public conclude that incremental approaches to reduce risk are insufficient and transformative change is needed across all sectors of society. However, the meaning of transformation is still unsettled in the literature, as is the proper role of science in fostering it. This paper is the first in a three-part series that adds to the discussion by proposing a novel science-driven research-and-development program aimed at societal transformation. More than a proposal, it offers a perspective and conceptual framework from which societal transformation might be approached. As part of this, it advances a formal mechanics with which to model and understand self-organizing societies of individuals. While acknowledging the necessity of reform to existing societal systems (e.g., governance, economic, and financial systems), the focus of the series is on transformation understood as systems change or systems migration—the de novo development of and migration to new societal systems. The series provides definitions, aims, reasoning, worldview, and a theory of change, and discusses fitness metrics and design principles for new systems. This first paper proposes a worldview, built using ideas from evolutionary biology, complex systems science, cognitive sciences, and information theory, which is intended to serve as the foundation for the R&D program. Subsequent papers in the series build on the worldview to address fitness metrics, system design, and other topics.

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Section: Species-niche Co-evolution and Self-identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Science-Driven Societal Transformation, Part I: Worldview

Boik

2020

Sustainability

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“…For an excellent review see Ref. 29. However, our focus here is on microbes that directly enter the CNS.…”

Section: Gut–brain Axismentioning

confidence: 99%

From conifers to cognition: Microbes, brain and behavior

Lathe

Clair

2020

Genes Brain and Behavior

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A diversity of bacteria, protozoans and viruses (“endozoites”) were recently uncovered within healthy tissues including the human brain. By contrast, it was already recognized a century ago that healthy plants tissues contain abundant endogenous microbes (“endophytes”). Taking endophytes as an informative precedent, we overview the nature, prevalence, and role of endozoites in mammalian tissues, centrally focusing on the brain, concluding that endozoites are ubiquitous in diverse tissues. These passengers often remain subclinical, but they are not silent. We address their routes of entry, mechanisms of persistence, tissue specificity, and potential to cause long‐term behavioral changes and/or immunosuppression in mammals, where rabies virus is the exemplar. We extend the discussion to Herpesviridae, Coronaviridae, and Toxoplasma, as well as to diverse bacteria and yeasts, and debate the advantages and disadvantages that endozoite infection might afford to the host and to the ecosystem. We provide a clinical perspective in which endozoites are implicated in neurodegenerative disease, anxiety/depression, and schizophrenia. We conclude that endozoites are instrumental in the delicate balance between health and disease, including age‐related brain disease, and that endozoites have played an important role in the evolution of brain function and human behavior.

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“…What we think of as a human is not entirely or even mostly human-a body contains roughly the same number of bacterial and human cells [110]. Among other things, their interplay affects our ability to learn and think, as well as our moods and social interactions [111,112].…”

Section: Species-niche Co-evolution and Self-identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Science-Driven Societal Transformation, Part I: Worldview

Boik¹

2020

Preprint

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Humanity faces serious social and environmental problems, including climate change and biodiversity loss. Risks are increasing and conditions deteriorating. Increasingly, scientists, global policy experts, and the general public conclude that incremental approaches are insufficient and transformative change is needed across all sectors of society. However, the meaning of transformation is still unsettled in the literature, as is the proper role of science in fostering it. This paper is the first in a three-part series that adds to the discussion by proposing a novel science-driven research-and-development program aimed at societal transformation. More than a proposal, it offers a perspective and conceptual framework from which societal transformation might be approached and understood. While acknowledging the necessity of reform to existing societal systems (e.g., governance, economic, and financial systems), the focus of the series is on transformation understood as systems change or systems migration—the de novo development of and migration to new societal systems. The series provides definitions, aims, reasoning, worldview, and a theory of change, and discusses fitness metrics and design principles for new systems. This first paper proposes a worldview built using ideas from evolutionary biology, complex systems science, cognitive sciences, and information theory that is intended to serve as the foundation for the R&amp;D program.

show abstract

Microbes and the Mind: How Bacteria Shape Affect, Neurological Processes, Cognition, Social Relationships, Development, and Pathology

Cited by 33 publications

References 198 publications

Science-Driven Societal Transformation, Part I: Worldview

Science-Driven Societal Transformation, Part I: Worldview

From conifers to cognition: Microbes, brain and behavior

Science-Driven Societal Transformation, Part I: Worldview

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