Embodied Intelligence
... and how it affects our brain and behavior!
The human microbiome is a newly recognized organ in the human body which has only recently (2010) been taken seriously as being an actual anatomical part of our being and not just being some bunch of bugs residing inside us like the microbes from someone who spit in our soup. My microbiome is just as much a part of me as my fingers are!
Alone that part of the microbiome in our digestive tract contains roughly 3.3 million different genes compared to the roughly 20’000 genes comprising our genotype. Our personal microbiome contributes (as much?) to the formation and definition of our character, our moods, our desires and our behaviour as does our brain and it even weighs about the same on the average (roughly 1.5 kg) containing about 100’000 billion microbes in all.
When our brain gets a message like «fear» or «hunger» after a meal it could be the inner voice of our microbiome talking to us.