Targeting Cognitive Resilience through Prebiotics: A Focused Perspective.

This perspective article is a product of the work of an expert group within the Prebiotic Task Force convened by the International Life Sciences Institute Europe, a non-profit organization that brings together experts from academia, industry, and public service to catalyze nutrition science for public benefit. An expert group was conceived in October 2023 to discuss the evidence base on the use of prebiotics to promote cognitive functioning, with a focus on highlighting knowledge gaps and proposing a list of recommendations to guide this specific area of research forward. To address this, we evaluated existing systematic reviews and meta-analyses of human intervention studies that examine the effects of prebiotics on cognitive functioning.

Effects of a diverse prebiotic fibre blend on inflammation, the gut microbiota and affective symptoms in metabolic syndrome: a pilot open-label randomised controlled trial.

Emerging evidence suggests that low-grade systemic inflammation plays a key role in altering brain activity, behaviour and affect. Modulation of the gut microbiota using prebiotic fibre offers a potential therapeutic tool to regulate inflammation, mediated via the production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA). However, the impact of prebiotic consumption on affective symptoms and the possible contribution from inflammation, gut symptoms and the gut microbiome are currently underexamined.

The Leuven Prolonged Acute Stress Test (L-PAST): A novel paradigm to induce a subjective and glucocorticoid stress response for at least ninety minutes.

Laboratory stress tests typically administer stress acutely, ranging from 3 to 15 minutes. However, everyday stressors usually last longer than ten minutes (e.g.

Colonic butyrate administration modulates fear memory but not the acute stress response in men: A randomized, triple-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) are produced in the colon following bacterial fermentation of dietary fiber and are important microbiota-gut-brain messengers. However, their mechanistic role in modulating psychobiological processes that underlie the development of stress- and anxiety-related disorders is scarcely studied in humans. We have previously shown that colonic administration of a SCFA mixture (acetate, propionate, butyrate) lowers the cortisol response to stress in healthy participants, but does not impact fear conditioning and extinction.

The role of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in regulating stress responses, eating behavior, and nutritional state in anorexia nervosa: protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Objective: This protocol proposes investigating the effects of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs)-namely acetate, propionate, and butyrate-as mediators of microbiota-gut-brain interactions on the acute stress response, eating behavior, and nutritional state in malnourished patients with anorexia nervosa (AN). SCFAs are produced by bacterial fermentation of dietary fiber in the gut and have recently been proposed as crucial mediators of the gut microbiota's effects on the host. Emerging evidence suggests that SCFAs impact human psychobiology through endocrine, neural, and immune pathways and may regulate stress responses and eating behavior.

subsp. Reduces Perceived Psychological Stress in Healthy Adults: An Exploratory Clinical Trial.

Emerging science shows that probiotic intake may impact stress and mental health. We investigated the effect of a 6-week intervention with (1 × 10 CFU/daily) on stress-related psychological and physiological parameters in 45 healthy adults with mild-to-moderate stress using a randomized, placebo-controlled, two-arm, parallel, double-blind design. The main results showed that supplementation with the probiotic significantly reduced the perceived stress and improved the subjective sleep quality score compared to placebo.

The EAT-Lancet reference diet and cognitive function across the life course.

The EAT-Lancet Commission devised a sustainable reference diet with the aim of reducing the incidence of non-communicable diseases and mortality globally while improving food system sustainability. The extent to which the reference diet supports cognitive function across the life course, however, has not yet been evaluated. This Review assesses the evidence for diet supporting cognitive function from childhood into old age.

Extruded Wheat Bran Consumption Increases Serum Short-Chain Fatty Acids but Does Not Modulate Psychobiological Functions in Healthy Men: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial.

Background: Incorporation of wheat bran (WB) into food products increases intake of dietary fiber, which has been associated with improved mood and cognition and a lower risk for psychiatric disorders such as depression, with short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) as candidate mediators of these effects. Modifying WB using extrusion cooking increases SCFA production relative to unmodified WB.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of extruded WB on psychobiological functioning and the mediating role of SCFAs.

Gut microbiota transplantation drives the adoptive transfer of colonic genotype-phenotype characteristics between mice lacking catestatin and their wild type counterparts.

The gut microbiota is in continuous interaction with the intestinal mucosa via metabolic, neuro-immunological, and neuroendocrine pathways. Disruption in levels of antimicrobial peptides produced by the enteroendocrine cells, such as catestatin, has been associated with changes in the gut microbiota and imbalance in intestinal homeostasis. However, whether the changes in the gut microbiota have a causational role in intestinal dyshomeostasis has remained elusive.

Catestatin selects for colonization of antimicrobial-resistant gut bacterial communities.

The gut microbiota is in continuous interaction with the innermost layer of the gut, namely the epithelium. One of the various functions of the gut epithelium, is to keep the microbes at bay to avoid overstimulation of the underlying mucosa immune cells. To do so, the gut epithelia secrete a variety of antimicrobial peptides, such as chromogranin A (CgA) peptide catestatin (CST: hCgA).

When the mind says one thing, but the HPA axis says another: Lack of coherence between subjective and neuroendocrine stress response trajectories in healthy men.

Psychological stress triggers the release of cortisol following the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and elicits concomitant subjective responses. Coherence among the stress response systems is theoretically expected, presumably to optimize the organism's response to environmental challenges, but has received little empirical support possibly due to the assumption of linear associations. The present study examined the associations between cortisol responses to the Maastricht Acute Stress Test (MAST) and concomitant subjective stress responses as well as mood states over the past weeks in 133 healthy men.

Dietary fibre and the gut-brain axis: microbiota-dependent and independent mechanisms of action.

Dietary fibre is an umbrella term comprising various types of carbohydrate polymers that cannot be digested nor absorbed by the human small intestine. Consumption of dietary fibre is linked to beneficial effects on cognitive and affective processes, although not all fibres produce the same effects. Fibres that increase short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production following modulation of the gut microbiota are thought to be the most potent fibres to induce effects on cognitive and affective processes.

Changes in kynurenine pathway metabolites after acute psychosocial stress in healthy males: a single-arm pilot study.

Chronic stress is associated with an increased conversion of tryptophan (TRP) into kynurenine (KYN). However, only a few studies investigated KYN pathway metabolite concentrations following acute stress in healthy subjects. We hypothesized that TRP/KYN metabolism changes following acute stress, and that KYN pathway metabolites are associated with cortisol and subjective stress responses.

Vasovagal reactions following venepuncture result in aberrant stress-induced cortisol levels.

Venepuncture is recognized as a potent stressor and, by activating the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, can interfere with measuring subsequent HPA axis indices such as cortisol. A resting period of 110 min is recommended between venepuncture and the commencement of psychosocial stress induction or cortisol measurement to allow cortisol levels to return to baseline first. In experiment 1 (n = 65), in which stress induction occurred 120 min after venepuncture, we observed three cortisol stress response patterns: conventional response ("responders", 77%), conventional non-response ("non-responders", 6.

Colon-delivered short-chain fatty acids attenuate the cortisol response to psychosocial stress in healthy men: a randomized, placebo-controlled trial.

Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) are products of microbial fermentation of dietary fiber in the colon and may mediate microbiota-gut-brain communication. However, their role in modulating psychobiological processes that underlie the development of stress- and anxiety-related disorders is not mechanistically studied in humans. In this triple-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled intervention trial, we examine in a parallel group design the effects of 1-week colonic SCFA-mixture delivery in doses equivalent to fermentation of 10 g or 20 g of arabinoxylan oligosaccharides on responses to psychosocial stress and fear tasks in 66 healthy men.

The role of short-chain fatty acids in microbiota-gut-brain communication.

Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), the main metabolites produced by bacterial fermentation of dietary fibre in the gastrointestinal tract, are speculated to have a key role in microbiota-gut-brain crosstalk. However, the pathways through which SCFAs might influence psychological functioning, including affective and cognitive processes and their neural basis, have not been fully elucidated. Furthermore, research directly exploring the role of SCFAs as potential mediators of the effects of microbiota-targeted interventions on affective and cognitive functioning is sparse, especially in humans.

A mind cleared by walnut oil: The effects of polyunsaturated and saturated fat on extinction learning.

The treatment of anxiety-based psychopathology often hinges upon extinction learning. Research in nutritional neuroscience has observed that the regular consumption of perilla oil (50% alpha-linolenic acid (ALA)) facilitates extinction learning in rats (Yamamoto et al., 1988).