Table 1.

Perturbation of the gut microbiota (GM) can affect social behavior in rodent models.

Model/intervention	Effects on social behavior	Neural correlates	Reference
Prenatal period
Maternal immune activation	Offsprings exhibited reduced sociability and reduced preference for social novelty	–	Hsiao et al. (2013)
Maternal high fat diet	Offsprings had fewer social interactions, exhibited reduced sociability and reduced prefeference for social novelty	Reduced oxytocin levels in the hypothalamus	Buffington et al. (2016)
Maternal antibiotic treatment	Offsprings had fewer and shorter social interactions	–	Degroote et al. (2016)
Maternal antibiotic treatment (1 week before delivery to 3 weeks after delivery)	Offsprings exhibited reduced sociability and reduced preference for social novelty. Male offsprings exhibited increased aggressive behavior.	Increased mRNA expression of arginine vasopressin receptor 1b in the frontal cortex	Leclercq et al. (2017)
Maternal antibiotic treatment (1 week before delivery to 3 weeks after delivery)	Prevented decrease in sociability and preference for social novelty in offsprings. No effect on male offsprings aggressivity observed.	Non significant (p = 0.1) trend of decreased mRNA expression of arginine vasopressin receptor 1b in the frontal cortex compared to offsprings exposed to antibiotics only.	Leclercq et al. (2017)
Post natal period
Germ-free mice	Increased sociability and increased preference for social novelty	–	Arentsen et al. (2015)
Germ-free mice	Reduced sociability and reduced preference for social novelty	–	Desbonnet et al. (2014)
Childhood and adolescence
Bacterial colonization of socially impaired germ-free mice (at 3 weeks)	Restores sociability but not preference for social novelty, suggesting impaired social memory	–	Desbonnet et al. (2014)
Colonization of socially impaired mice with healthy mice GM (at 4 weeks)	Restores sociability and preference for social novelty	–	Buffington et al. (2016)
Probiotic administration (Lactobacillus reuteri) to socially impaired mice (at 4 weeks)	Restores sociability and preference for social novelty	Enhanced oxytocin levels in the hypothalamus	Buffington et al. (2016)
Antibiotic treatment (from 3 weeks onwards)	Normal sociality, reduced social memory	Reduced oxytocin and vasopressin levels in the hypothalamus	Desbonnet et al. (2015)
Adulthood
Colonization of socially impaired mice with healthy mice GM (at 8 weeks)	Fails to restore sociability and preference for social novelty	–	Buffington et al. (2016)