MoodBugs: How our gut microbes influence how we feel

The project aims to investigate the causality and directionality of the relationship between gut microbiota composition and psychobiological functioning, specifically fear learning and stress sensitivity as affective disorder endophenotypes. State-of-the-art techniques to study gut microbiota will be integrated with experimental psychology methods and advanced neuroimaging techniques (including fMRI, radioligand PET and combined PET/MR imaging) to unravel microbiota-affect relationships as well as the underlying microbiota-gut-brain-signalling mechanisms and neurochemical mediators of this relationship. Specifically, the role of short-chain fatty acids in mediating the relationship will be investigated.