Microbiota regulate social behaviour via stress response neurons in the brain.

ABSTRACT: Social interactions among animals mediate essential behaviours, including mating, nurturing, and defence^1,2. The gut microbiota contribute to social activity in mice^3,4, but the gut-brain connections that regulate this complex behaviour and its underlying neural basis are unclear^5,6. Here we show that the microbiome modulates neuronal activity in specific brain regions of male mice to regulate canonical stress responses and social behaviours. Social deviation in germ-free and antibiotic-treated mice is associated with elevated levels of the stress hormone corticosterone, which is primarily produced by activation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Adrenalectomy, antagonism of glucocorticoid receptors, or pharmacological inhibition of corticost

SUBMITTER: Wu WL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8346519 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature