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The impact of a prebiotic-rich diet and/or probiotic supplements on human cognition: Secondary outcomes from the ‘Gut Feelings’ randomised controlled trial
Recent studies suggest that gut microbiota-targeted interventions may enhance cognitive function. This study by Freijy et al. (2024) aimed to evaluate whether a prebiotic-rich diet, a probiotic supplement, or a synbiotic combination of both could improve cognition as part of the ‘Gut Feelings’ trial. 118 persons with poor mood and the potential for dietary change participated in an 8-week, 2 × 2 factorial randomized controlled experiment. The treatment groups were: (1) probiotic supplement with usual diet (probiotic group), (2) high-prebiotic diet with placebo supplement (prebiotic diet group), (3) probiotic supplement with high-prebiotic diet (synbiotic group), and (4) placebo supplement with usual diet (placebo group). The Cogstate Brief Battery, which assessed working memory, processing speed, attention, and visual learning, was used to assess cognitive function both at baseline and eight weeks later. There was weak evidence suggesting that the probiotic improved working memory. For other interventions, there was little to no evidence of cognitive improvement. The prebiotic diet showed weak evidence of impairing processing speed. The probiotic and prebiotic diets did not appear to have a synergistic impact. The study suggests a potential improvement in working memory with probiotics and a possible impairment in processing speed with a prebiotic diet. However, the overall evidence remains inconclusive regarding the cognitive effects of the probiotic, prebiotic diet, or synbiotic treatments. Further larger studies with neuroimaging or electrophysiology measures are recommended. [NPID: Prebiotics, probiotics, synbiotics, diet, gut microbiota, cognition, clinical trial]
Year: 2024
