Towards Psychobiotics: The Microbiome as a Key Regulator of Brain and Behavior

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) presents the Integrative Medicine Research Lecture Series. The series provides overviews of the current state of research and practice involving complementary health approaches and explores perspectives on the emerging discipline of integrative medicine. John F. Cryan, Ph.D., is professor and Chair in the Department of Anatomy & Neuroscience at University College Cork in Ireland. There is a growing appreciation of the relationship between gut microbiota and the host in maintaining homeostasis in health and predisposing to disease. Bacterial colonization of the gut plays a major role in postnatal development and maturation of key systems that have the capacity to influence central nervous system (CNS) programming and signaling, including the immune and endocrine systems. Individually, these systems have been implicated in the neuropathology of many CNS disorders and collectively they form an important bidirectional pathway of communication between the microbiota and the brain in health and disease. Over the past 5 years substantial advances have been made in linking changes in microbiota to brain development and even behavior and the concept of a microbiota-gut-brain axis has emerged. In order to explore this relationship, Dr. Cryan’s team conducts studies involving animal models, early-life microbiota manipulations, and probiotic administration in adulthood. Their research has shown that gut microbiota...
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