A prospective investigation into the association between the gut microbiome composition and cognitive performance among healthy young adults

Abstract

Background There is emerging evidence that the gut microbiome composition is associated with several human health outcomes, which include cognitive performance. However, only a few prospective epidemiological studies exist and none among young adults. Here we address the gap in the literature by investigating whether the gut microbiome composition is prospectively linked to fluid intelligence among healthy young adults. Methods Forty individuals (65% females, 26 years) from the DOrtmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed (DONALD) study provided a fecal sample for gut microbiome composition and subsequently (average of 166 days) completed a cognitive functioning test using the Cattell’s Culture Fair Intelligence Test, revised German version (CFT 20-R). The assessment of the gut microbiome at the genera level was by 16S rRNA V3-V4 Illumina sequencing. The relative abundance of 158 genera was summarized into bacterial communities using a novel data-driven dimension reduction, amalgamation. The fluid intelligence score was regressed on the relative abundance of the bacterial communities and adjusted for selected covariates. Results The 158 genera were amalgamated into 12 amalgams (bacterial communities), which were composed of 18, 6, 10, 14, 8, 10, 16, 13, 12, 12, 3, and 11 genera. Only the 14-genera bacterial community, named the “Ruminococcaceae- and Coriobacteriaceae-dominant community” was positively associated with fluid intelligence score (β = 7.8; 95% CI: 0.62, 15.65, P = 0.04). Conclusion Among healthy young adults, the abundance of a gut bacterial community was associated with fluid intelligence score. This study suggests that cognitive performance may potentially benefit from gut microbiome-based intervention.

Prophylactic Effect of Bovine Colostrum on Intestinal Microbiota and Behavior in Wild-Type and Zonulin Transgenic Mice

“…Overall, research suggests that dysbiosis of the intestinal microbiota and increased intestinal permeability (commonly, but not exclusively, due to dysbiosis) can affect brain function, mental health, and behavior [3,16,31,35,[57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66].…”

Influence of HIV infection on cognition and overall intelligence in HIV-infected individuals: advances and perspectives

“…However, higher fractions of Bacteroides have also been linked to higher cognitive functioning, as reported by other teams (Carlson et al, 2018;Tamana et al, 2021). Besides, while Oluwagbemigun et al (2022) have observed that Ruminococcaceae-and Coriobacteriaceaedominant communities are associated with higher intelligence scores, some have reported that (i) Firmicutes-dominant and Bacteroidetesdominant clusters (Tamana et al, 2021) are positively associated with higher cognitive functioning. In analyzing the age of the participants in the preceding studies (adults for some studies and infants for the other studies), one may legitimately believe that the relationship between gut microbiota composition and cognition and/or overall intelligence depends on age.…”

“…Further investigations are therefore required in this regard. It is, however, important to note that Oluwagbemigun et al (2022) have observed that Akkermansia and other bacteria (Ruminiclostridium 5, Ruminococcaceae UCG-010, Coriobacteriaceae, Slackia, the Eubacterium hallii group, Peptoclostridium, Lactococcus, Erysipelotrichaceae incertae sedis, Eubacterium nodatum group, Prevotellaceae, Robiginitalea, Pseudomonas, and the Bacteroidales S24-7 group) are associated with fluid intelligence, which in turn, according to van Aken et al (2016), correlates with cognitive performance. In the absence of a definitive list of bacteria influencing human intelligence, the list provided by Oluwagbemigun et al (2022) is informative, and represent an important platform from which researchers may launch further investigations, particularly in an HIV infection-related context.…”

“…Lastly, the presence of comorbidities [e.g., colorectal cancer (Coghill et al, 2018)] and/or opportunistic infections [e.g., candidiasis (Zaongo et al, 2023)] may have significant associations with the gut-brain axis, and therefore their potential influence on IQ scores and intelligence deserve to be investigated. As such, Lomelí-Martínez et al (2022) have noted that, in general, oral infections are associated with HIV/ AIDS patients. They usually manifest in an immunodeficiency context and, as such, we believe that they may have a negative association with IQ scores and overall intelligence.…”

Antibiotics and mental health: The good, the bad and the ugly

“…More accurate calculations put the relative ratio at slightly over 1 microbe to every human cell [ 8 ]. Over a thousand strains of bacteria have been identified in the gut microbiota [ 9 , 10 , 11 ]. Many of these strains remain unculturable and have been identified by sequencing.…”