Link Between Baby's Gut Microbiome and Brain Development Identified

The composition of specific microbes in infants' gut microbiota was linked to their performance in assessments of early cognitive development (1^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Babies, bugs and brains: How the early microbiome associates with infant brain and behavior development

Go to source). Mounting evidence has highlighted numerous ways in which the community of diverse microbes that naturally reside in the human gut—the microbiome—is connected to human health, including brain health. Several studies in animals and humans have hinted at connections between the microbiome and early-life brain development, but few have examined how differences in infants’ microbiomes might be associated with differences in their emerging cognitive abilities.

To help deepen understanding of these potential connections, Hunter and colleagues analyzed data from 56 infants aged four to six months. The infants had each completed at least one of three evaluations of various cognitive abilities, and the researchers evaluated their gut microbiomes using faecal samples.

Microbiome Composition Linked to Social Attention Abilities in Infants

They found that infants who succeeded at a test of social attention known as “point and gaze”—which measures the ability to share focus on an object with another person—tended to have higher amounts of microbes in the Actinobacteria phylum, the genus Bifidobacterium, and the genus Eggerthella, and lower amounts of microbes in the Firmicutes phylum, the Hungatella genus, and the Strepcococcus genus.

Is Baby's Gut Instinct Related to Brain Development?

Meanwhile, electroencephalogram measurements of infants’ brain activity in response to hearing a steady beat showed that certain patterns of activity linked to better rhythmic processing were associated with higher or lower levels of certain microbe types, as well as with levels of certain metabolic chemical reactions involving microbes that prior 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 hearing recordings of both forward and backward human speech.

The authors add: “In our small pilot study, we observed interesting associations between the microbiome and brain function in early infancy. Further replication and research could be fruitful for understanding the role of the microbiome in early cognitive development.”

Reference:

1. Babies, bugs and brains: How the early microbiome associates with infant brain and behavior development - (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0288689)

Source-Eurekalert