Department of Landscape, The University of Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK; inVIVO Planetary Health, of the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN), NJ 10704, USA; The Healthy Urban Microbiome Initiative (HUMI), Australia.
College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Bedford Park, SA 5042, Australia; The Healthy Urban Microbiome Initiative (HUMI), Australia.
Sci Total Environ. 2020 Jun 10;720:137626. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137626. Epub 2020 Feb 28.
Psychological frameworks are often used to investigate the mechanisms involved with our affinity towards, and connection with nature--such as the Biophilia Hypothesis and Nature Connectedness. Recent revelations from microbiome science suggest that animal behaviour can be strongly influenced by the host's microbiome--for example, via the bidirectional communication properties of the gut-brain axis. Here, we build on this theory to hypothesise that a microbially-influenced mechanism could also contribute to the human biophilic drive - the tendency for humans to affiliate and connect with nature. Humans may be at an evolutionary advantage through health-regulating exchange of environmental microbiota, which in turn could influence our nature affinity. We present a conceptual model for microbially-influenced nature affinity, calling it the Lovebug Effect. We present an overview of the potential mechanistic pathways involved in the Lovebug Effect, and consider its dependence on the hologenome concept of evolution, direct behavioural manipulation, and host-microbiota associated phenotypes independent of these concepts. We also discuss its implications for human health and ecological resilience. Finally, we highlight several possible approaches to scrutinise the hypothesis. The Lovebug Effect could have important implications for our understanding of exposure to natural environments for health and wellbeing, and could contribute to an ecologically resilient future.
心理学框架常被用于研究人类与自然之间的亲和力和联系机制，例如亲生命假说和自然连接。最近的微生物组科学研究表明，动物的行为可以受到宿主微生物组的强烈影响，例如通过肠道-大脑轴的双向通讯特性。在这里，我们基于这一理论假设，微生物影响的机制也可能有助于人类的亲生命驱动力，即人类与自然联系和亲近的倾向。人类可能通过环境微生物群的健康调节交换处于进化优势地位，而这反过来又可能影响我们对自然的亲和力。我们提出了一个受微生物影响的自然亲和力的概念模型，称之为“爱虫效应”。我们概述了“爱虫效应”涉及的潜在机制途径，并考虑了其对进化的“全息基因组”概念、直接行为操纵以及独立于这些概念的宿主-微生物群相关表型的依赖性。我们还讨论了它对人类健康和生态恢复力的影响。最后，我们强调了几种可能的方法来仔细研究该假说。“爱虫效应”可能对我们理解自然环境对健康和幸福的影响有重要意义，并有助于实现生态恢复力的未来。
