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Neuroscience

Mum's bacteria linked to baby's behaviour

Nature volume 549, pages 466–467 (2017)Cite this article

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A Correction to this article was published on 12 October 2017

This article has been updated

Infection during pregnancy increases the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism, in offspring. Mouse studies now reveal a link between gut bacteria and atypical brain-circuit connections. See Article p.482 & Letter p.528

What do pregnancy, viral infection, gut bacteria, the immune response and the function of a neuronal circuit in the brain have in common? More than you might expect, according to a pair of studies, by Kim et al.1 and Yim et al.2, reported on pages 528 and 482, respectively.

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Figure 1: Maternal immune response and the brain circuits underlying atypical offspring behaviour.

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  • 11 October 2017

    This article originally omitted to mention that the author has declared competing financial interests.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Departments of Neurology and Neurotherapeutics, and of Psychiatry and of Neuroscience, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, 75390, Texas, USA

    Craig M. Powell

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  1. Craig M. Powell
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Correspondence to Craig M. Powell.

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Competing interests

C.M.P. has accepted travel funds/honoraria to speak once at the following companies: Psychogenics; Astra-Zeneca; Roche; Pfizer; and Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma Co. He also has an investigator-initiated Novartis grant for clinical research. None of these relates to the current study.

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Powell, C. Mum's bacteria linked to baby's behaviour. Nature 549, 466–467 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature24139

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