Abstract
Microglia, glial cells with immunological/inflammatory functions, have been suggested to play important roles in stress responses and various psychiatric disorders. To clarify physiological and pathological roles of microglia, novel translational approaches should be applied with a multi- dimensional approach toward psychology and psychiatry.
In this article, we introduce recent rodent studies focusing on the relationship between stress and microglia. In addition, we introduce a novel translational research approach focusing on human microglia. Our recent neuroeconomic investigations with young healthy male volunteers using minocycline, an antibiotic with inhibitory effects on microglial activation, suggest that microglia may unconsciously modulate human social behaviors as “noise” under psychosocial stress.
We believe that our novel translational approach will open the door to explore various unknown dynamic aspects of human microglia in the process of modulating the mind.
