Recent work has found that microorganisms in the __________ can play a role in mental health.

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

The prompt shows a fill-in-the-blank style question about where microorganisms can influence mental health, but there are no answer options provided to analyze.
In a typical question of this type, the correct completion would be 'gut,' since extensive research on the gut–brain axis indicates that the gut microbiota can affect mood, cognition, and mental health through mechanisms like immune signaling, metabolic byproducts, and neural pathways.
If the options were, for example, 'blood,' 'skin,' 'heart,' and 'gut,' the reasoning would be that:
- Blood: while immune factors circulate in blood, this choice does not point to a reservoir of microorganisms that directly modulates gut-brain communication.
- Skin: the skin hosts microbiota, but its direct link to mental health is less established than the gut–brain axis framework.
- Heart: not a primary site where resident microorganisms influence mental health through known neural or immune pathways.
- Gut: the strongest candidate, because the intestinal microbiome interacts with the nervous system via the vagus nerve, metabolites like short-chain fatty acids, and inflammatory signaling, all of which can influence mood and behavior.
If the test later includes line items that require selecting multiple options, you would apply the same rationale: prioritize microbiota sites with well-supported gut–brain communication mechanisms, namely the gastrointestinal tract in this context.
Overall, the key concept is that microbial communities in the gut can modulate brain function and mental health through complex, bidirectional communication pathways across the gut-brain axis.

PSY 1 S25 Mini Exam #1

Recent work has found that microorganisms in the __________ can play a role in mental health.

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