Association Between The Oral Microbiome And Brain Resting State Functional Network Connectivity In Schizophrenia

An increasing number of studies point to the promise of investigate the microbiome in understanding this rarely known environmental dimension of complex mental disorders such as schizophrenia (SZ), especially in relation to the dysfunction of brain circuits.In this work, we leveraged high throughput microbiome 16S sequencing and resting-state functional neuroimaging techniques to assess oral microbial community and brain resting functional network connectivity (FNC) from a total of 213 subjects from both SZ and healthy controls (HC).The results suggest a potential link between oral microbiome dysbiosis and brain functional connectivity alterations in relation to SZ, possibly through immunological and neurotransmitter signaling pathways. This work provides support for future work in characterizing the role of oral microbiome in mediating SZ brain functional activity.