The Microbiome in Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience

Amar Sarkar; Siobhán Harty; Soili M Lehto; Andrew H Moeller; Timothy G Dinan; Robin I M Dunbar; John F Cryan; Philip W J Burnet

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2018.04.006

The Microbiome in Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience

Trends Cogn Sci. 2018 Jul;22(7):611-636. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2018.04.006. Epub 2018 Jun 12.

Authors

Amar Sarkar¹, Siobhán Harty², Soili M Lehto³, Andrew H Moeller⁴, Timothy G Dinan⁵, Robin I M Dunbar⁶, John F Cryan⁷, Philip W J Burnet⁸

Affiliations

¹ Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Department of Physiology, Development, and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; Trinity College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. Electronic address: amar.sarkar@gmail.com.
² Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience and School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.
³ Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland; Institute of Clinical Medicine / Psychiatry, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland; Department of Psychiatry, Kuopio University Hospital, Kuopio, Finland.
⁴ Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
⁵ APC Microbiome Institute, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland; Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioural Sciences, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
⁶ Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
⁷ Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioural Sciences, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland; Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
⁸ Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.

PMID: 29907531
DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2018.04.006

Abstract

Psychology and microbiology make unlikely friends, but the past decade has witnessed striking bidirectional associations between intrinsic gut microbes and the brain, relationships with largely untested psychological implications. Although microbe-brain relationships are receiving a great deal of attention in biomedicine and neuroscience, psychologists have yet to join this journey. Here, we illustrate microbial associations with emotion, cognition, and social behavior. However, despite considerable enthusiasm and potential, technical and conceptual limitations including low statistical power and lack of mechanistic descriptions prevent a nuanced understanding of microbiome-brain-behavior relationships. Our goal is to describe microbial effects in domains of cognitive significance and the associated challenges to stimulate interdisciplinary research on the contribution of this hidden kingdom to psychological processes.

Keywords: antibiotics; commensal bacteria; gut–brain axis; hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis; interkingdom signaling; microbiome; microbiota; prebiotics; probiotics; psychobiotics.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Behavior / physiology*
Brain / physiology*
Cognition / physiology*
Gastrointestinal Microbiome* / physiology
Humans

Grants and funding

BB/N010035/1/Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council/United Kingdom