Chapter 7 Microbiota in neurodevelopmental disorders

Host–microbe interactions during prenatal and postnatal time windows have the potential to substantially impact neurodevelopment. The origins of brain health and disease thus need to be considered from a microbial perspective and in the context of gut–brain axis signaling from conception to birth and during infancy. The maternal microbiota is poised to exert a substantial impact on the newborn infant as are any deviations from the optimal postnatal assembly of the gut microbiome. Preclinical studies have helped illuminate how early-life gut microbiome disruptions can manifest in behavioral, molecular, and brain morphological phenotypes of relevance to neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia. These observations are now supported by studies in clinical populations, and increasing translational efforts to understand how aberrant microbiome–gut–brain axis signaling during critical time windows provokes the disruption of neurodevelopmental trajectories on the way to the manifestation of brain disorders. These concepts open new avenues for the development of novel therapeutic interventions in early life to combat neurodevelopmental deficits.