November 01, 2019
New studies in mice have linked the microbiome with the ability to recover from mental trauma. Researchers from Icahn School of Medicine have been working with mice in the laboratory. They conditioned the mice to respond to experience fear when they heard a particular sound by applying a small electric shock to their feet. After the mice were conditioned to this the scientists continued to play the sound to the mice, but without the shock.
Initially the mice would freeze when they heard the sound, a response to the previous ‘mental trauma’ they had experienced, but different groups of mice reacted differently following the removal of the shock. They discovered that mice that had had their gut microbes depleted by antibiotics took much longer to learn that the sound was no longer paired with a shock and remained fearful much longer than the mice with healthy gut microbes.
This is the first study of its kind to show that changes to the gut microbiome can impact how we move beyond a learned response to a fearful situation. Further research is required, but potential applications of this research may be altering the microbiome of humans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Source: Independent
Read more: http://ow.ly/aYRc50wUi1n
