A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Infant fecal microbiota composition and attention to emotional faces
Authors: Aatsinki Anna K, Kataja Eeva-Leena, Munukka Eveliina, Lahti Leo, Keskitalo Anniina, Korja Riikka, Nolvi Saara, Häikiö Tuomo, Tarro Saija, Karlsson Hasse, Karlsson Linnea
Publisher: American Psychological Association
Publishing place: Washington
Publication year: 2022
Journal: Emotion
Journal name in source: Emotion (Washington, D.C.)
Journal acronym: Emotion
Volume: 22
Issue: 6
First page : 1159
Last page: 1170
ISSN: 1528-3542
eISSN: 1931-1516
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000924(external)
Web address : https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Femo0000924(external)
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/51216480(external)
The gut microbiota has been suggested to influence neurodevelopment in
rodents. Preliminary human studies have associated fecal microbiota
composition with features of emotional and cognitive development as well
as differences in thalamus-amygdala connectivity. Currently,
microbiota-gut-brain axis studies cover heterogenous set of infant and
child brain developmental phenotypes, while microbiota associations with
more fine-grained aspects of brain development remain largely unknown.
Here (N = 122, 53% boys), we investigated the associations
between infant fecal microbiota composition and infant attention to
emotional faces, as bias for faces is strong in infancy and deviations
in early processing of emotional facial expressions may influence the
trajectories of social-emotional development. The fecal microbiota
composition was assessed at 2.5 months of age and analyzed with 16S rRNA
gene sequencing. Attention to emotional faces was assessed with an
age-appropriate face-distractor paradigm, using neutral, happy, fearful,
and scrambled faces and salient distractors, at 8 months of age. We
observed an association between a lower abundance of Bifidobacterium and a higher abundance of Clostridium
with an increased “fear bias,” that is, attention toward fearful versus
happy/neutral faces. This data suggests an association between early
microbiota and later fear bias, a well-established infant phenotype of
emotionally directed attention. However, the clinical significance or
causality of our findings remains to be assessed.
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