Gut feelings: Associations of emotions and emotion regulation with the gut microbiome in women

Abstract

Accumulating evidence suggests that positive and negative emotions, as well as emotion regulation processes, influence the onset and the progression of multiple human diseases. However, the underlying mechanisms connecting these emotion-related factors with physical health are not fully understood. Recent work linking the gut microbiome with both mental and physical health suggests it may be a potential pathway. Yet, its association with emotions and emotion regulation are understudied. In this study, we examined whether positive and negative emotions, as well as two emotion regulation strategies (i.e., cognitive reappraisal and suppression), were associated with the diversity, overall structure, and specific species/pathways of the gut microbiome in 206 healthy women. We found that the alpha diversity was negatively associated with suppression. Moreover, using multivariate analysis, we found that positive emotions were inversely associated with the relative abundance of Firmicutes bacterium CAG 94 and Ruminococcaceae bacterium D16, while negative emotions were directly related to relative abundance of these same species. Moreover, we found associations of emotions and emotion regulation with microbial metabolic pathways. For example, negative emotions were inversely related to biosynthesis of pantothenate, coenzyme A, and adenosine. Taken together, our findings offer human evidence supporting linkages of emotions and related regulatory processes with the gut microbiome. These findings highlight the critical importance of incorporating the human gut microbiome in our understanding of emotion-related factors and their associations with physical health.