The impact of a prebiotic-rich diet and/or probiotic supplements on human cognition: Secondary outcomes from the 'Gut Feelings' randomised controlled trial.

Background: Emerging evidence indicates that gut microbiota-targeted interventions may lead to improvements in cognition. We assessed whether a prebiotic-rich dietary intervention, probiotic supplement, or synbiotic combination of both would improve human cognition, as part of the 'Gut Feelings' trial.

Methods: An 8-week, 2 × 2 factorial randomised controlled trial was conducted on 118 adults with low mood and potential for dietary improvement.

Effects of a high-prebiotic diet versus probiotic supplements versus synbiotics on adult mental health: The "Gut Feelings" randomised controlled trial.

Background: Preliminary evidence supports the use of dietary interventions and gut microbiota-targeted interventions such as probiotic or prebiotic supplementation for improving mental health. We report on the first randomised controlled trial (RCT) to examine the effects of a high-prebiotic dietary intervention and probiotic supplements on mental health.

Methods: "Gut Feelings" was an 8-week, 2 × 2 factorial RCT of 119 adults with moderate psychological distress and low prebiotic food intake.

Food-related attentional bias. Word versus pictorial stimuli and the importance of stimuli calorific value in the dot probe task.

Objective: The primary aim of this study was to extend previous research on food-related attentional biases by examining biases towards pictorial versus word stimuli, and foods of high versus low calorific value. It was expected that participants would demonstrate greater biases to pictures over words, and to high-calorie over low-calorie foods. A secondary aim was to examine associations between BMI, dietary restraint, external eating and attentional biases.

Dissonance-based interventions for health behaviour change: a systematic review.

Purpose: Increasing evidence suggests that various health behaviours are amenable to change following the induction of cognitive dissonance. This systematic review sought to evaluate the effectiveness and methodological quality of dissonance-based health behaviour interventions and to explore identified sources of heterogeneity in intervention effects.

Methods: Bibliographic databases were searched for relevant articles from inception to March 2012.