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Katerina Johnson, from the University's Departments of Psychiatry and Experimental Psychology, was researching the effects of disrupting the microbiome on the brain in mice. 'We know from previous research that animals missing microbes, such as germ-free animals (which are devoid of microbes) or antibiotic-treated animals (whose microbes are severely depleted), have impaired social behaviour,' she explains. 'I was therefore particularly interested in the effects of the microbiome on endorphin, oxytocin and vasopressin signalling since these neuropeptides play an important role in social and emotional behaviour.'
Read the full article (University of Oxford website)