The bacteria and the brain with Iris Sommer

Can you eat yourself smart, or rather dumb? What resides in your intestines, and how does it affect your mood? Can a healthy gut flora make you more resilient to stress? And what do gut bacteria have to do with Parkinson's disease?
The microbiome, the diverse collection of microorganisms in the gut, is crucial for our health. Moreover, it has a significant impact on the brain, and thus our mental health. As science unravels the connection between gut flora, the immune system, and the brain, it becomes increasingly clear that the zoo in our intestines plays a vital role in the development of psychiatric and neurological disorders. Will antidepressants soon be replaced by donor poop in capsule form? Will we soon be prescribed a Parkinson's or Alzheimer's diet? And how can your diet make you more stress-resistant during exam periods?

Iris Sommer works as a neuroscientist and psychiatrist at the University Medical Center Groningen. With her team, she strives to make a difference for people with complex brain disorders. Her current research focuses on the use of automatic speech analysis for psychiatry, for which she recently received two major grants from the EU. In 2021, she was named a Distinguished Lorentz Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS) in Amsterdam, and in 2022, she received the Huijbrechtsen Prize for Science and Society. In 2023, she and her team were at Lowland for Shitty Science, a study on the role of gut flora in personality, and she co-hosted the podcast series In de Diepte; Het Brein with BNR news radio. Additionally, she is an author, and her previous books, "Haperende Hersenen" (Stuttering Brains) and "Het Vrouwenbrein" (The Female Brain), were bestsellers. She recently wrote "Voed je Brein" (Feed Your Brain) and "De Bacterie en het Brein" (The Bacteria and the Brain), in which she explains the relationship between nutrition, gut flora, and the brain, the topic for this evening.

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