ArticleMolecular psychiatry2018
The microbiome regulates amygdala-dependent fear recall.
Article in Molecular psychiatry, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 99 papers.
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Who cites it
99 citing papers in PubMed.
- PROVIT: Supplementary Probiotic Treatment and Vitamin B7 in Depression-A Randomized Controlled Trial.Nutrients · 2020Trial
- Mild concussion impairs extinction of avoidance and alters respective brain circuits in male rats.Experimental neurology · 2026Article
- The Gut Microbiome in Early Ontogeny: Implications for Brain and Immune System Development.Journal of developmental biology · 2026Review
- A defined community of core gut microbiota members promotes cognitive performance in honey bees.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Gut microbiome community structure correlates with different behavioral phenotypes in the Belyaev Farm-Fox Experiment.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Gut-brain axis in health and brain disease.Chinese medical journal · 2026Review
- The Microbiota Shapes Central Nervous System Myelination in Early Life.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Nutritional Management of Schizophrenia: Gut-Brain Axis Mechanisms and Dietary Interventions.Molecular neurobiology · 2026Review
- A one health perspective on the intestinal microbiome's role in COVID-19 outcomes and recovery.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Review
- Gut microbiota and cognitive decline: a scoping review of microbial mechanisms and adaptive responses in dementia.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Review
- Microbiome modulation and behavioural improvements in children with fragile X syndrome following probiotic intake: A pilot study.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Synbiotic intervention reverses alcohol drinking-induced cognitive deficits in adolescent male mice by modulating the microbiota-gut-brain axis.Gut microbes · 2025Article
- Targeting the Microbiota Reverses C-Section-Induced Effects on Intestinal Permeability, Microbiota Composition, and Amygdala Gene Expression in the Mouse.Neurogastroenterology and motility · 2025Article
- Gut microbiome is associated with insula structure in neonates.Physiology & behavior · 2025Article
- Longitudinal associations between the infant gut microbiome and negative affect in toddlerhood.Development and psychopathology · 2025Article
- Gut microbiota regulate insomnia-like behaviors via gut-brain metabolic axis.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Article
- A review on gut microbiota and miRNA crosstalk: implications for Alzheimer's disease.GeroScience · 2025Review
- Microbial metabolites tune amygdala neuronal hyperexcitability and anxiety-linked behaviors.EMBO molecular medicine · 2025Article
- Exposure to the herbicide glyphosate leads to inappropriate threat responses and alters gut microbial composition.Frontiers in toxicology · 2025Article
- Microbial orchestration of neuroimmune crosstalk: from homeostasis to disease.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
39 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The amygdala is a key brain region that is critically involved in the processing and expression of anxiety and fear-related signals. In parallel, a growing number of preclinical and human studies have implicated the microbiome-gut-brain in regulating anxiety and stress-related responses. However, the role of the microbiome in fear-related behaviours is unclear. To this end we investigated the importance of the host microbiome on amygdala-dependent behavioural readouts using the cued fear conditioning paradigm. We also assessed changes in neuronal transcription and post-transcriptional regulation in the amygdala of naive and stimulated germ-free (GF) mice, using a genome-wide transcriptome profiling approach. Our results reveal that GF mice display reduced freezing during the cued memory retention test. Moreover, we demonstrate that under baseline conditions, GF mice display altered transcriptional profile with a marked increase in immediate-early genes (for example, Fos, Egr2, Fosb, Arc) as well as genes implicated in neural activity, synaptic transmission and nervous system development. We also found a predicted interaction between mRNA and specific microRNAs that are differentially regulated in GF mice. Interestingly, colonized GF mice (ex-GF) were behaviourally comparable to conventionally raised (CON) mice. Together, our data demonstrates a unique transcriptional response in GF animals, likely because of already elevated levels of immediate-early gene expression and the potentially underlying neuronal hyperactivity that in turn primes the amygdala for a different transcriptional response. Thus, we demonstrate for what is to our knowledge the first time that the presence of the host microbiome is crucial for the appropriate behavioural response during amygdala-dependent memory retention.
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