Graduate School of Education, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan.
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
Dev Psychobiol. 2024 Nov;66(7):e22542. doi: 10.1002/dev.22542.
Temperament is a key predictor of human mental health and cognitive and emotional development. Although human fear behavior is reportedly associated with gut microbiome in infancy, infant gut microbiota changes dramatically during the first 5 years, when the diversity and composition of gut microbiome are established. This period is crucial for the development of the prefrontal cortex, which is involved in emotion regulation. Therefore, this study investigated the relationship between temperament and gut microbiota in 284 preschool children aged 3-4 years. Child temperament was assessed by maternal reports of the Children's Behavior Questionnaire. Gut microbiota (alpha/beta diversity and genera abundance) was evaluated using 16S rRNA sequencing of stool samples. A low abundance of anti-inflammatory bacteria (e.g., Faecalibacterium) and a high abundance of pro-inflammatory bacteria (e.g., Eggerthella, Flavonifractor) were associated with higher negative emotionality and stress response (i.e., negative affectivity, β = -0.17, p = 0.004) and lower positive emotionality and reward-seeking (i.e., surgency/extraversion, β = 0.15, p = 0.013). Additionally, gut microbiota diversity was associated with speed of response initiation (i.e., impulsivity, a specific aspect of surgency/extraversion, β = 0.16, p = 0.008). This study provides insight into the biological mechanisms of temperament and takes important steps toward identifying predictive markers of psychological/emotional risk.
气质是人类心理健康、认知和情绪发展的关键预测指标。尽管据报道，人类的恐惧行为与婴儿时期的肠道微生物群有关，但在婴儿期的前 5 年中，肠道微生物群会发生巨大变化，此时肠道微生物群的多样性和组成得以建立。这一时期对于前额叶皮层的发育至关重要，前额叶皮层参与情绪调节。因此，本研究调查了 284 名 3-4 岁学龄前儿童的气质与肠道微生物群之间的关系。儿童气质通过母亲对儿童行为问卷的报告进行评估。肠道微生物群（α/β 多样性和属丰度）通过粪便样本的 16S rRNA 测序进行评估。抗炎细菌（如粪杆菌）的低丰度和促炎细菌（如 Eggerthella、Flavonifractor）的高丰度与更高的负性情绪和应激反应（即负性情感，β=-0.17，p=0.004）和较低的正性情绪和奖励寻求（即活力/外向性，β=0.15，p=0.013）相关。此外，肠道微生物群多样性与反应启动速度（即冲动性，活力/外向性的一个特定方面，β=0.16，p=0.008）相关。本研究深入了解了气质的生物学机制，并朝着识别心理/情绪风险的预测标志物迈出了重要一步。
