that can be measured by EGG is that of stress. When the body is stressed and engages in the fight-or-flight response, blood flow is directed to the muscles in the arms and legs and away from the digestive system. This loss of blood flow slows the digestive system, and this slowing can be seen on the EGG. However, this response can vary from person to person and situation to situation. All of these examples are part of a larger theory of a brain–gut connection. This theory states that the vagus nerve provides a direct link between the brain and the gut so that emotions can affect stomach rhythms and vice versa. This idea originated in the mid-1800s when Alexis St. Martin, a man with a gunshot-induced fistula in his abdomen, experienced lower secretions of digestive juices and a slower stomach emptying when he was upset. In this case, the emotions St. Martin was feeling affected his physiological reaction, but the reverse can also be true. In a study with Crohn's disease patients where patients and unaffected controls watched happy, frightening, disgusting, and saddening films, patients with active Crohn's disease had more responsive EGG (a greater physiological response) and reported feeling more aroused when feeling the negative emotions of disgust or sadness. This leads researchers to believe that increased physiological activation can influence increased experience of emotions. Another study published in 1943 that studied the fistulated man Tom discovered that if "Tom was fearful or depressed his gastic activity decreased but when he was angry or hostile his gastric activity increased". This finding is contrasted by an EGG study by Ercolani et al. who had subjects perform either difficult or easy mental arithmetic or puzzles. They found that new tasks slowed down the myoelectrical activity of the stomach, suggesting that stress tends to impede gastric activity and that this can be picked up on an EGG. While there is still much research to be done on the brain-gut connection, research thus far has indeed shown that your stomach does indeed churn differently when you are emotionally aroused, and this could be the basis of the gut feeling that many people describe experiencing. Gender differences In recent years, some research has been done about gender differences in the perception and experience of disgust. One such study, upon presenting both male and female subjects with video clips designed to trigger disgust and found