This is exciting because it suggests that the early life gut microbiome might shape functional brain development in middle childhood in ways that are relevant for emergence of anxiety and depression symptoms when children enter school age. Lots of directions for follow-up! 🥳.

In sum, this study identifies prospective links between gut microbiome composition, brain functional connectivity networks, and internalizing (depression and anxiety) symptoms across early to middle childhood.

We found one microbial profile, that included mostly microbes from the Clostridiales order and Lachnospiraceae family, was indirectly associated with internalizing symptoms through a brain signature characterized by alterations in connectivity within emotion-related networks.

Finally, we tested whether any microbiome features (microbial profiles or alpha diversity) were indirectly associated with internalizing symptoms via the brain signatures.

Here, we used sPLS to identify combinations of brain networks ("brain signatures") at age 6 that maximally covaried with internalizing symptoms at age 7.5, and then identified microbe abundances ("microbial profiles") at age 2 that maximally covaried with the brain signatures.

Studying the brain and gut microbiome together is challenging since both are very complex and high-dimensional. One possible solution is to use multivariate machine learning techniques, such as sparse partial least squares regression (sPLS).

The brain & gut microbiome interact to influence mental health through the microbiome-gut-brain axis. But there hasn't been much research linking the microbiome & brain function to mental health during childhood, when these systems are developing a lot & mh issues often emerge.

🚨preprint alert🚨 .Excited to share new work on developmental links between the microbiome-gut-brain axis and internalizing symptoms with @Dr_BCallaghan, @JessicaUy_PhD, Jen Labus, and the GUSTO study team 🥳 (1/n) .(note: has not yet been peer-reviewed).

Yayy! I've so much fun working on this project! Congrats to our paper leader @ShibaEsfand 🥳. Stay tuned for more results coming soon from the Mind, Brain, and Body Study 😀.

Remember to get your booster! 📈 good reminder that side effects may be milder than you expect.

RT @ShibaEsfand: So excited to share my first first-author paper published in Journal of Affective Disorders! We developed and validated a….

RT @AllieDWSullivan: @SomersJenn bringing the house down launching the closing session of @devpsybio #isdp2024

RT @pw_savoca: ‼️Novel Mechanistic Framework for Peripartum Depression‼️. In our new perspective article we highlight the role of #interoce….

RT @Dr_BCallaghan: @BABLab_UCLA student @ShibaEsfand rocking the #ISDP2024 poster session tonight with her proposed hypothesis driven study….

RT @KristenAChu: If you’re at #ISDP come stop by my poster this evening to see our results investigating latent profiles of early life adve….

RT @pw_savoca: If you’re at #ISDP come stop by my poster this evening to see our results investigating the relationship between features of….

RT @ShibaEsfand: At #ISDP2024 ? Be sure to drop by my poster (#86) to hear me talk about the links between the gut microbiome, striatal fun….

RT @NGancz: Come check out my poster tonight to learn more about my favorite topic, the oral microbiome brain axis! #ISDP2024 https://t.co/….

Almost forgot to share the poster link!

Specifically, I’d like to apply the research and statistical skills I’ve honed towards more clinically-oriented or intervention studies on mental or physical health. If you’d like to connect or have any leads on opportunities, please reach out!.