ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2011
Normal gut microbiota modulates brain development and behavior.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 5 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 1,557 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
The Safety and Effectiveness of Probiotic Supplementation on Bipolar Depression: a Proof of Concept Randomized Controlled Trial
The Infant MiND Study: An Examination of Infants' Microbiome, Nutrition, and Development Study.
A Randomized Controlled Trial of the Safety and Efficacy of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation in a Population With Bipolar Disorder
Proof-of-Concept "Stress & Anxiety Dampening Effects of Lpc-37"
Understanding the Neurocognitive Effects of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation in Major Depressive Disorder Patients With and Without Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Who cites it
1,557 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 3,192 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Fecal microbiota transplantation from psychiatric patients to mice - systematic review of methodologies and a call for standardization.Translational psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Depressive symptoms at short-, medium-, and long-term follow-up after bariatric surgical procedures: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2025Pooled it
- The efficacy of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium in patients with schizophrenia: a meta-analysis.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2025Pooled it
- Exploring the gut-brain axis in alzheimer's disease treatment via probiotics: evidence from animal studies-a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC neurology · 2024Pooled it
- Neurodevelopment and Growth 2 Years After Probiotic Supplementation in Extremely Preterm Infants: A Randomised Trial.Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992) · 2025Trial
- Microbial shifts in early life: the pediatric gut microbiome and its role in health and disease.Gut microbes · 2026Review
- The putative role of the microbiota in the development of neuropsychiatric disorders following early childhood malnutrition.Gut microbes · 2026Review
- Parental microbiome programming of early-life neurodevelopment: multi-niche contributions through the microbiome-gut-brain axis.Gut microbes · 2026Review
- Oral virome in health and disease.Journal of the American Dental Association (1939) · 2026Review
- Oral Health Status and Cardinal Symptoms of Depression in the Old Order Amish: a cross-sectional study.Research square · 2026Article
- The Tryptophan-Kynurenine Pathway as a Key Mediator of the Gut-Brain Axis in Depression and Alzheimer's Disease.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Delivering the Gut to the Brain: Drug Delivery Strategies for Microbiota-Derived Therapeutics in Depression.Pharmaceutics · 2026Review
- The Adolescent Microbiome-Gut-Brain Axis: Development, Mechanisms, and Translational Perspectives.Nutrients · 2026Review
- Mapping gene expression across the microbiome-gut-brain axis of germ-free and specific pathogen-free mice.Microbiology (Reading, England) · 2026Article
- Maternal and infant gut microbiome.iMeta · 2026Review
- TDP-43-immunity-microbiota axis in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: A potential pathogenic mechanism.Neural regeneration research · 2026Article
- Article
- Gut microbiota promote early-life digestive function in songbirds.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Changes in Gut Microbiota and Brain Function in Rats Fed with a copper-overloaded Diet.Biological trace element research · 2026Article
1,497 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Microbial colonization of mammals is an evolution-driven process that modulate host physiology, many of which are associated with immunity and nutrient intake. Here, we report that colonization by gut microbiota impacts mammalian brain development and subsequent adult behavior. Using measures of motor activity and anxiety-like behavior, we demonstrate that germ free (GF) mice display increased motor activity and reduced anxiety, compared with specific pathogen free (SPF) mice with a normal gut microbiota. This behavioral phenotype is associated with altered expression of genes known to be involved in second messenger pathways and synaptic long-term potentiation in brain regions implicated in motor control and anxiety-like behavior. GF mice exposed to gut microbiota early in life display similar characteristics as SPF mice, including reduced expression of PSD-95 and synaptophysin in the striatum. Hence, our results suggest that the microbial colonization process initiates signaling mechanisms that affect neuronal circuits involved in motor control and anxiety behavior.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.