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Did the Gut’s Nervous System Evolve Before the Brain?
Flinders researchers propose that the enteric nervous system may have evolved before the brain, which later helped organisms meet the gut’s energy needs.
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- Flinders researchers propose that the enteric nervous system may have evolved before the brain, which later helped organisms meet the gut’s energy needs.
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openai.comCreate a landscape editorial hero image for this Studio Global article: What hypothesis do Flinders University researchers Tim Hibberd, Hayley Rhodes and Nick J. Spencer propose in their opinion piece “The first. Article summary: Hibberd, Rhodes and Spencer propose a “gut-first” hypothesis: the enteric nervous system (ENS) may have evolved as the body’s original brain, with the head brain developing later to help secure food and satisfy the gut’s. Topic tags: general, government, education, general web, academic. Style: premium digital editorial illustration, source-backed research mood, clean composition, high detail, modern web publication hero. Use reference image context only for broad subject, composition, and topical grounding; do not copy the exact image. Avoid: logos, brand marks, copyrighted characters, real person likenesses, fake screenshots, UI text, readable text, watermarks
The enteric nervous system (ENS)—the network of nerves in the gut—can coordinate many digestive functions without continuous direction from the brain and spinal cord. Flinders researchers Tim Hibberd, Hayley Rhodes and Nick J. Spencer use that evidence to advance a bigger evolutionary idea: the gut’s neural system may have come first, with the brain developing later in part to help organisms find and process food.7
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That is a hypothesis about nervous-system origins, not a finding from a new experiment. The evidence that the ENS works independently today helps explain why the idea is worth considering, but does not establish that it evolved before the central nervous system.5
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Why call the gut a “first brain”?
The ENS is sometimes called the “second brain” because it is a substantial neural network embedded in the digestive tract. Its local circuits sense conditions in the gut and coordinate digestive activity; they can regulate these functions autonomously, generally without conscious sensation.15 “Brain” here refers to integrated neural control, not evidence that the gut has conscious thoughts.
Research on bowel tissue also shows that enteric neural activity can be coordinated with rhythmic activity in smooth muscle.1 Spencer and Hongzhen Hu’s 2020 review summarizes work on enteric sensory responses, neural circuits and gastrointestinal movement control. Together, these findings illustrate the ENS’s capabilities—but current function alone cannot reveal the order in which nervous systems evolved.
What the evolutionary hypothesis proposes
The researchers’ reframing starts with a possible survival priority: acquiring and processing energy. If early nervous systems helped organisms manage that task, the digestive tract could have been an important place for neural control to emerge. In this account, a more centralized brain developed later to help meet the gut’s needs.7
The claim is therefore not simply that the gut communicates with the brain. It suggests a different evolutionary starting point for nervous systems. The authors’ proposal appears in an opinion piece, so it should be read as an argument based on existing physiological and evolutionary ideas, not as experimental confirmation of the sequence.5
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What it could mean for disease research
The practical value of the idea, for now, is as a research perspective—not a treatment recommendation.
- Obesity and metabolism: Greater attention to enteric nutrient sensing could help researchers investigate the gut’s role in energy regulation. Research already examines ENS nutrient sensing in the context of obesity and related metabolic problems.
- Parkinson’s disease: The ENS is already studied in relation to Parkinson’s. The “first brain” framing could encourage questions about gut neural function, but it does not show that Parkinson’s begins in the gut.
- Digestive disorders: A focus on local sensory and motor circuits may help researchers examine how changes in enteric signaling relate to digestive function.
An evolutionary hypothesis does not demonstrate that a particular intervention is safe or effective. The proposal alone therefore provides no basis for changing clinical treatment.5
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What remains uncertain
The central gap is between two different claims: that the ENS can control digestive activity locally today, and that it appeared before the central nervous system in evolutionary history. Evidence for the first does not, by itself, settle the second.1
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The available reporting describes a proposed interpretation of existing evidence, not a resolved account of nervous-system origins.5
7 The careful conclusion is that the ENS has complex and partly autonomous functions, while the claim that it was evolution’s first brain remains a hypothesis—not a proven history.
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Flinders researchers propose that the enteric nervous system may have evolved before the brain, which later helped organisms meet the gut’s energy needs.