gut thinking

From: Reanimation Library and International Styles

"The concept that the gut and the brain are closely connected, and that this interaction plays an important part not only in gastrointestinal function but also in certain feeling states and in intuitive decision making, is deeply rooted in our language. Recent neurobiological insights into this gut–brain crosstalk have revealed a complex, bidirectional communication system that not only ensures the proper maintenance of gastrointestinal homeostasis and digestion but is likely to have multiple effects on affect, motivation and higher cognitive functions, including intuitive decision making."— nature reviews
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"Technically known as the enteric nervous system, the second brain consists of sheaths of neurons embedded in the walls of the long tube of our gut, or alimentary canal, which measures about nine meters end to end from the esophagus to the anus. The second brain contains some 100 million neurons, more than in either the spinal cord or the peripheral nervous system, says [...] Michael Gershon, chairman of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at New York–Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, an expert in the nascent field of neurogastroenterology and author of the 1998 book The Second Brain (HarperCollins)." — Adam Hadhazy, Scientific American
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"[German psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer] was one of the researchers whose studies of human cognition underpinned Malcolm Gladwell's 2005 best-seller, Blink, which was about how snap decisions often seem to yield better results than careful analysis. In his new book, Gut Feelings, Gigerenzer describes some of the quick-and-dirty decision-making tools our brains come fitted with--an 'adaptive toolbox' of tricks that we skilfully, and usually unconsciously, pick for the task at hand. [...] 100 pedestrians were stopped and asked which of 50 company stocks they recognised. The portfolio this generated beat 88% of all entrants in a stock-picking competition. 'Ignorance isn't random; it's systematic,' says Gigerenzer. 'If you know too much, it is harder to distinguish between what is important, and what is not.' " — Helen Joyce, More Intelligent Life
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