Building Healthy Minds By Harnessing the Microbiome and Dopamine

Dopamine is thought to play a role in making us feel good when good things happen, particularly when it’s unexpected. It's believed that this “dopamine rush” pushes us to seek out those outcomes again, no matter how bad for us they can be. This can be problematic when “good” is no longer “good enough” and we try to look for “better”. My talk discusses my work in better understanding how dopamine in the brain integrates these signals of “good” (and “bad”) during risky decision making and then how manipulating these signals can translate to safer decision making.

Did you know that your tummy is full of little friends that talk to your brain? These friends are tiny bacteria, called the gut microbiome, and they can help kids’ brains grow up healthy. This is especially important for kids who’ve gone through tough stuff, like losing a parent, which can lead to higher risk of mental health problems. My lab is working on getting a better picture of how bacteria talk to the brain in kids with a wide variety of backgrounds, with the hope that we can find ways to use the microbiome to help all kids grow up healthy, no matter what they’ve been through?