Neuron–Microglia Interactions in Mental Health Disorders: “For Better, and For Worse”

Persistent cognitive and behavioral symptoms that characterize many mental health disorders arise from impaired neuroplasticity in several key corticolimbic brain regions. Recent evidence suggests that reciprocal neuron-microglia interactions shape neuroplasticity during physiological conditions, implicating microglia in the neurobiology of mental health disorders. Neuron-microglia interactions are modulated by several molecular and cellular pathways, and dysregulation of these pathways often have neurobiological consequences, including aberrant neuronal responses and microglia activation. Impaired neuron-microglia interactions are implicated in mental health disorders because rodent stress models lead to concomitant neuronal dystrophy and alterations in microglia morphology and function. In this context, functional changes in microglia may be indicative of an immune state termed parainflammation in which tissue-resident macrophages (i.e., microglia) respond to malfunctioning cells by initiating modest inflammation in an attempt to restore homeostasis. Thus, aberrant neuronal activity and release of damage-associated signals during repeated stress exposure may contribute to functional changes in microglia and resultant parainflammation. Furthermore, accumulating evidence shows that uncoupling neuron-microglia interactions may contribute to altered neuroplasticity and associated anxiety- or depressive-like behaviors. Additional work shows that microglia have varied phenotypes in specific brain regions, which may underlie divergent neuroplasticity observed in corticolimbic structures following stress exposure. These findings indicate that neuron-microglia interactions are critical mediators of the interface between adaptive, homeostatic neuronal function and the neurobiology of mental health disorders.