Decision-making and credition under a microbial perspective.

The human body is home to a highly diverse microbial community. Next-generation sequencing-based technologies have drastically revolutionized our knowledge of the human microbiome; now we see them together as a tight association called meta-organism or holo-biont. We have learned from the analysis of the human microbiome that it is involved in many more processes and diseases than recently thought, including heart diseases, cancer, autism, obesity, and others. Less is known about how the microbiome affects brain function and our behavior. There is evidence that the brain and the gut are well connected. Here we present and discuss examples that our microbiome is vital in inter-kingdom communication and interplay. This overview of the state-of-the-art findings in current literature shows that the analysis of the human microbiome data has brought about a paradigm shift in our understanding of its role in diseases and decision-making. In contrast, credition - processes of belief – and microbiome shifts need further research. Taken together, we would like to postulate that our microbiome has to be considered as an essential partner in decision-making and credition processes, and propose the need for a tighter connection between microbiome research, neurosciences, and psychology.