Gut Bacterial Taxonomic Abundances Vary with Cognition, Personality, and Mood in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study

Overview

Journal Brain Behav Immun Health

Date 2021 Sep 30

PMID 34589897

Citations 8

Authors

Audrey Renson

Lora J Kasselman

Jennifer B Dowd

Levi Waldron

Heidi E Jones

Pamela Herd

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Animal studies have shown that the gut microbiome can influence memory, social behavior, and anxiety-like behavior. Several human studies show similar results where variation in the gut microbiome is associated with dementia, depression, and personality traits, though most of these studies are limited by small sample size and other biases. Here, we analyzed fecal samples from 313 participants in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, a randomly selected population-based cohort of older adults, with measured psycho-cognitive dimensions (cognition, mood, and personality) and key confounders. 16s V4 sequencing showed that is associated with all measured psycho-cognitive traits, is associated with cognitive and personality traits, is associated with mood and personality traits, is associated with cognitive traits, and is associated with mood traits. These findings are robust to sensitivity analyses and provide novel evidence of shared relationships between the gut microbiome and multiple psycho-cognitive traits in older adults, confirming some of the animal literature, while also providing new insights. While we addressed some of the weaknesses in prior studies, further studies are necessary to elucidate temporal and causal relationships between the gut microbiome and multiple psycho-cognitive traits in well-phenotyped, randomly-selected population-based samples.

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