In-Silico Assessment of the Neuromodulatory Potential of Fermented FoodsDownload PDF Download PDF ArticleOpen accessPublished: 26 August 2026Ramya Balasubramanian1,2,3,Thomaz F. S Bastiaanssen4,John Leech3,John F. Cryan1,2 &…Paul D. Cotter1,3 npj Science of Food (2026) Cite this articleSave articleView saved research We’re sharing this article early to provide faster access to peer-reviewed, accepted research. It is citable and carries a permanent DOI. This version is subject to further edits and will be replaced automatically by the final Version of Record. All legal disclaimers apply.AbstractThere is a growing appreciation of the health benefits of fermented foods, including their potential ability to modulate the microbiota-gut-brain axis. Such foods contain diverse microbial communities that can influence host phenotypes, although the mechanisms are poorly understood, especially in terms of modulating the central nervous system. Here, we analysed 820 fermented food microbial metagenomes for their potential to produce neuromodulatory metabolites. We identified health-associated functional diversity to be driven by abiotic factors such as food substrate categories and fermentation strategy, which critically influence fermented food production. We identified food substrates including brine, cereal, root, tuber and seed along with their food-associated microbial species to be rich in pathways pertaining to the production of neuromodulatory metabolites. Overall, we unravel key factors that shape the functional potential of fermented foods that will be an important resource for the development of optimised fermented foods and beverages to enhance brain health.AcknowledgementsWe thank members of the Vision 1 laboratory, Teagasc and the Microbiota-gut-brain axis lab for advice, helpful discussions and critical review of the manuscript. We would like to acknowledge the work of Dr. John F. Leech and Dr. Paula Fernandez Gomez for providing us with their unpublished sequencing data prior to its incorporation into the cFMD dataset for our analysis.Author informationAuthors and AffiliationsAPC Microbiome Ireland, University College Cork, Cork, IrelandRamya Balasubramanian, John F. Cryan & Paul D. CotterDepartment of Anatomy and Neuroscience, University College Cork, Cork, IrelandRamya Balasubramanian & John F. CryanDepartment of Food Bioscience, Teagasc Food Research Centre, Moorepark, Fermoy, Cork, IrelandRamya Balasubramanian, John Leech & Paul D. CotterDepartment of Psychiatry, Amsterdam University Medical Centers Location VUmc, Amsterdam, The NetherlandsThomaz F. S BastiaanssenAuthorsRamya BalasubramanianView author publicationsSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarThomaz F. S BastiaanssenView author publicationsSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarJohn LeechView author publicationsSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarJohn F. CryanView author publicationsSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarPaul D. CotterView author publicationsSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarCorresponding authorsCorrespondence to John F. Cryan or Paul D. Cotter.Ethics declarationsCompeting interestsThe authors declare no competing interests.Additional informationPublisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.Supplementary informationRights and permissionsOpen Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.Reprints and permissionsAbout this article