Sar & Taxqueen ... a bit about the *other* brain...

From today's New York Times:

[There is a] close - sometimes too close - relationship between the human body's two brains, the one at the top of the spinal cord and the hidden but powerful brain in the gut known as the enteric nervous system. [...] The role of the enteric nervous system is to manage every aspect of digestion, from the esophagus to the stomach, small intestine and colon. The second brain, or little brain, accomplishes all that with the same tools as the big brain, a sophisticated nearly self-contained network of neural circuitry, neurotransmitters and proteins.
[...]
It is no surprise that there is a direct relationship between emotional stress and physical distress. [...] The enteric and central nervous systems use the same hardware, as it were, to run two very different programs. Serotonin, for instance, is crucial to feelings of well-being. Hence the success of the antidepressants known as S.S.R.I.'s that raise the level of serotonin available to the brain.

But 95 percent of the body's serotonin is housed in the gut, where it acts as a neurotransmitter and a signaling mechanism. [...]

The article goes on to discuss irritable bowel syndrome & its interplay with serotonin. Full text(  is behind ze cut. )