At Wellman Acupuncture in Cincinnati, Ohio we frequently use a modality known as the Balance Method. By mapping out sections of the body onto other parts of the body we can help conditions without actually needling the injured area. An example is using the elbow to treat the knee. People often notice an improvement within minutes. Another example is mapping the face out on the abdomen. On another level, this makes sense since one symptom of poor digestion is hazy-thinking. With this in mind, I wanted to find more correlations. Below are two articles by Christopher Fisher, PhD on the relationship between Gut bacteria and our brain, impacting our behavior.
pauseandlisten.org 
Hey Amanda, How have you been? Good to see you on here. China has been a blast so far.
I was checking out the links you have here. Very interesting. I have also looked into the enteric nervous system and its relation to sympathetic and para-sympathetic function. It’s basically a separate brain in your gut.
I hope all is well with you and your practice is a huge success!
Michael
Hi Michael!
Glad you made it to China! Yes, I agree, this is a very interesting topic. If it is easily accessible for you, could you direct me to some of your sources for information on it?
Amanda
I’m sorry I don’t have many resources for my theories. I haven’t been able to find much research that seeks to combine modern physiological and psychological concepts of cognitive processing with TCM views of the various Shen that reside in their respective Zangfu and how their function relates to the energetic exchange along the dan tians.
One of the first books I read is “The Gift of Fear” by Gavin de Becker. It is a self-help book that explains how your intuition is felt in your gut, often in times of fear or stress. He then gives strategies on how to recognize these signals and use them to help avoid conflict and violent situations throughout our lives.
What little information I have taken about the function of the enteric nervous system comes from Wiki and our physiology textbooks.
This is something I hope to expand on, but may have to wait until I can devote more time to it.
All the best,
Michael