Human threat learning is associated with gut microbiota composition

Javiera P Oyarzun; Thomas M Kuntz; Yoann Stussi; Olivia T Karaman; Sophia Vranos; Bridget L Callaghan; Curtis Huttenhower; Joseph E LeDoux; Elizabeth A Phelps

doi:10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac271

Human threat learning is associated with gut microbiota composition

PNAS Nexus. 2022 Dec 2;1(5):pgac271. doi: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac271. eCollection 2022 Nov.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
² Center for Neural Science and Department of Psychology, New York University, New York NY, 10003, USA.
³ Department of Biostatistics, Microbiome Analysis Core, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
⁴ Department of Psychology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
⁵ Department of Psychiatry and Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York University Langone Medical School, New York, NY 1003,USA.
⁶ Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.

Abstract

The ability to learn about threat and safety is critical for survival. Studies in rodent models have shown that the gut microbiota can modulate such behaviors. In humans, evidence showing an association with threat or extinction learning is lacking. Here, we tested whether individual variability in threat and extinction learning was related to gut microbiota composition in healthy adults. We found that threat, but not extinction learning, varies with individuals' microbiome composition. Our results provide evidence that the gut microbiota is associated with excitatory threat learning across species.

Keywords: anxiety; gut microbiota; humans; learning; threat conditioning.

Grants and funding

TL1 TR001447/TR/NCATS NIH HHS/United States