Evidence shows that the gut microbiome in early life is an essential modulator of physiological processes related to healthy brain development, as well as mental and neurodegenerative disorders. Here, we conduct a systematic review of gut microbiome assessments on infants (both healthy and with conditions that affect brain development) during the first thousand days of life, associated with neurodevelopmental outcomes, with the aim of investigating key microbiome players and mechanisms through which the gut microbiome affects the brain. Bacteroides and Bifidobacterium were associated with non-social fear behavior, duration of orientation, cognitive and motricity development, and neurotypical brain development. Lachnospiraceae, Streptococcus, and Faecalibacterium showed variable levels of influence on behavior and brain development. Few studies described mechanistic insights related to NAD salvage, aspartate and asparagine biosynthesis, methanogenesis, pathways involved in bile acid transformation, short-chain fatty acids production, and microbial virulence genes. Further studies associating species to gene pathways and robustness in data analysis and integration are required to elucidate the functional mechanisms underlying the role of microbiome-gut-brain axis in early brain development.
Keywords: Bacteroides; Bifidobacterium; early life microbiome; microbial mechanism; microbiome–gut–brain axis; neurodevelopmental outcomes.