Lundbeck Foundation Fellow: Micah Allen wants to uncover the link between brain and body

Micah Allen’s research focuses on our gut feelings. His theory is that our decisions are rarely completely rational and we are strongly influenced by gut feelings. Micah will be investigating whether these gut feelings are actually linked to the signals sent from our inner organs to the brain.

“I’ll be conducting experiments using beta blockers, to see whether the decisions people make differ depending on whether their heart rate is slow or fast. I’ll also be studying patients who’ve had their stomach removed, which involves cutting the vagus nerve that normally sends sensory information back to the brain from the body. It will be really interesting to see whether this diminished body-brain signalling has an impact on our decisions,” he says.