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Antibiotic-mediated gut microbiota depletion affects behavioral and neuronal correlates of spatial cognition
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Alarcon, Juan Marcos
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Fall 2024
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2024-09-27
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Abstract
Trillions of microbes —comprising communities of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microorganisms—
inhabit the gastrointestinal tract. Known as gut microbiota, these microorganisms
are central to human health. Growing evidence connects imbalances of microbial
communities with several neurological and psychiatric conditions, and signals to the modulating
role of gut bacteria on brain function, including learning and memory. However, how
the microbiota influences cognitive behavior remains unclear. Here, we investigated whether
gut microbiota depletion disrupts the behavioral and neuronal correlates of spatial cognition.
We depleted gut bacteria in mice by giving a cocktail of non-absorbable antibiotics
and characterized 1) learning and memory performance in modalities of a place avoidance
task with different cognitive demands and 2) Arc and c-Fos-expressing neuronal ensembles
in the supra and infrapyramidal blades of the dentate gyrus. We found impaired learning
and memory performance in place avoidance tasks that require high, but not low, cognitive
demand and blade-specific alterations in Arc and c-Fos-expressing granule cell ensembles
with microbiota depletion. Our results suggest that gut microbial signaling may regulate
the expression of neural mechanisms underlying cognitive control.
Citation
Chanovas Colome, J (2024). Antibiotic-mediated gut microbiota depletion affects behavioral and neuronal correlates of spatial cognition. [Doctoral dissertation, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University]. SUNY Open Access Repository. https://soar.suny.edu/handle/20.500.12648/16209