Probiotics could hold the answer to neurological issues, study suggests A new study in mice with social behaviour deficits has suggested the gut plays a lead role in behaviour and brain function and microbiome modulating products may hold the key to treatment of social neurological disorders. Dr. Mauro Costa-Mattioli, professor and Cullen Foundation Endowed Chair in neuroscience and director of the Memory and Brain Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas, discovered with his team that different abnormal behaviours are interdependently regulated by the host's genes and microbiome. The findings, published in the journal Cell, reveal that in mouse models with neurodevelopmental disorders, hyperactivity is controlled by the host's genetics, whereas social behaviour deficits are mediated by the gut microbiome.