Levels of certain types of microbes in babies’ guts were associated with performance on tests of early cognitive development, a small exploratory study by Sebastian Hunter of the University of British Columbia and colleagues has revealed. who have published their findings in the journal PLOS ONE.
Many scientific studies have highlighted numerous ways in which the community of different microbes naturally found in the human gut (the microbiome) is connected to health, including the health of the brain, known as the gut axis. -brain. Several animal and human studies have suggested connections between the microbiome and brain development in early life, but few have studied how differences in infants’ microbiomes might be associated with differences in their emerging cognitive abilities.
To help deepen the understanding of these potential connections, Hunter and her colleagues analyzed data from 56 four- to six-month-old babies. Each of the babies had completed at least one of three assessments of various cognitive abilities, and the researchers analyzed their gut microbiomes using fecal samples.
Role of the microbiome in early cognitive development
The researchers found that babies who succeeded on a test of social attention known as “point and look,” which measures the ability to share focus on an object with another person, tended to have higher numbers of microbes in the Actinobacteria phylum, the genus Bifidobacterium and the genus Eggerthella, and smaller numbers of microbes in the phylum Firmicutes, the genus Hungatella, and the genus Strepcococcus.
“In our small pilot study we observed interesting associations between the microbiome and early childhood brain function”
Meanwhile, EEG measurements of the babies’ brain activity in response to hearing a steady heartbeat showed that certain activity patterns linked to better rhythmic processing were associated with higher or lower levels of certain types of microbes, as well as with levels of certain metabolic chemical reactions involving microbes that previous studies have linked to brain and spinal cord development.
No links were found between the microbiome and measurements of blood flow in the infants’ brains in response to auditory recordings of forward and backward human speech. In general, these findings are in line with the idea that the microbiome could influence early cognitive development, but more research is needed to confirm and clarify its mechanisms of action.
The authors add: “In our small pilot study we observed interesting associations between the microbiome and brain function in early childhood. Further replication and research could be fruitful in understanding the role of the microbiome in early cognitive development.”
