The gut microbiome plays a key role in the developing body, being a crucial component of bidirectional functional axes. There is a cross-talk between the gut microbiota composition and immune system development, metabolism, neurogenesis, gastrointestinal integrity and many other processes. The mechanisms whereby this influence is exerted are actively discussed. The gut microbiota has been found to interact with the brain through the microbiota-gut-brain axis, regulating various physiological processes. The gut microbiota is considered to regulate neurodevelopment through three pathways: the immune pathway, the neuronal pathway, and the endocrine-systemic pathway, which overlap and cross-talk with each other. The gut microbiome is a system which undergoes dynamic changes, which pattern has certain regularities. During fetal development, the microbiome progresses over time in parallel with the complex, genetically determined process of neuronogenesis. New studies confirm the active impact of the intestinal microbiome and its metabolites on the neuropsychic development of children. However, homeostasis within microbiota-gut-brain system can be disrupted, which increases the risk of developing neuropsychiatric disorders, including autism spectrum disorders, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The diversity and abundance of bacterial colonization are influenced by a number of factors, including infant nutrition. More emphasis has been rightly placed on the role of specific nutrients in the neurodevelopment of young children. Timely supplementation of critically important food components serves as a basis for developing approaches that ensure the prevention of a whole range of nervous system diseases. Given that breastfeeding rates are still below desirable levels, special attention should be paid to the infant formula components that affect infant health.
Захарова et al. (2025) studied this question.