The Microbiome of the Built Environment and Human Behavior: Implications for Emotional Health and Well-Being in...

It is increasingly evident that inflammation is an important determinant of cognitive function and emotional behaviors that are dysregulated in stress-related psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety and affective disorders. Inflammatory responses to physical or psychological stressors are dependent on immunoregulation, which is indicated by a balanced expansion of effector T-cell populations and regulatory T cells. This balance is in part driven by microbial signals. The hygiene or "old friends" hypothesis posits that exposure to immunoregulation-inducing microorganisms is reduced in modern urban societies, leading to an epidemic of inflammatory disease and increased vulnerability to stress-related psychiatric disorders. With the global trend toward urbanization, humans are progressively spending more time in built environments, thereby, experiencing limited exposures to these immunoregulatory "old friends." Here, we evaluate the implications of the global trend toward urbanization, and how this transition may affect human microbial exposures and human behavior.