Reversing memory loss via gut-brain communication
108 points - today at 4:38 PM
Sourceinanutshellus
today at 6:07 PM
Everyone's "poo-pooing" the article because the title doesn't mention mice, but, FWIW, stories of gut biota affecting humans behavior have been documented for a while.
Memory gain is noteworthy, which is the article's "wow" factor, but everyone's just knee-jerk smirking so ... here's a few random articles to gross you out about the wild world of trading microbiota and, for better or worse, changing your personality:
* "My butt made me crave candy."[1]
* "Gee, I'm not bipolar anymore thanks to my husband's butt juice infusion."[2]
Crazy, right?
[1] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-behavioral-microbiome/202404/hacking-an-individuals-personality-through-their-gut-contents
[2] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-28/faecal-microbiota-transplant-credited-with-curing-bipolar/105541522
I believe this research is totally true-- I had a lot of memories come back after
1. I stopped drinking heavily and using other drugs, i.e. marijuana
2. managed my diet to avoid heartburn without medication
3. schedule my meals so it was easier to sleep at night (always eat something for breakfast when I wake up)
I did not need any "poo infusion" or anything.
I had a gal bladder removal that didn't fix the problems the doctors thought it would and got a lot smarter about the kinds and variety of food I eat.
I believe alcohol in particular was really screwing up my gut biome and entire digestive system.
hbcondo714
today at 6:24 PM
I would recommend the site https://gutbrainaxistherapeutics.com for learning more about Microbiota Transplant Therapy (MTT) and its opportunities, especially for Autism and Pitt-Hopkins Syndrome.
jimkleiber
today at 7:16 PM
There was a South Park episode about this years ago where everyone was trying to get it from Tom Brady.
This seems to be a recent anti-science meme to dismiss studies that use mouse models. I'm sure there is an interesting line of discussion about the strengths and limits of those models, but that's probably a complex, nuanced thread to pull, not something you blow off with a hand-waving internet comment.
inanutshellus
today at 6:33 PM
To some degree the other posts are just pointing out the misleading "assumed protagonist" of the title (which doesn't mention mice) but I was surprised to see that the majority of posts boiled down to "eek! mice!"
I bet it started with people trying to 1-up other commenters via the usual “achtually…” and then proceeding with the “in mice” notice.
seethishat
today at 6:47 PM
IMO people should eat more fiber. A lot more fiber. It cleans the gut, the liver, absorbs cholesterol, slows insulin response and makes you feel full longer. The microbes in our guts need it to function.
Rather than jumping from one fad diet to another, just eat what you like and be sure to get a lot of fiber each day.
The post is about a scientific study and your response is your opinion with nothing else to back it up?
they IMO are trying to help by giving good ideas to keep a healthy gut. Add that to the study and at least to me, it´s a nice idea.
btw people, do drink water to keep up with the fiber. Otherwise it might not help.
> eat what you like and be sure to get a lot of fiber each day
Sure sounds like another fad diet.
> Sure sounds like another fad diet.
Yeah! A fad lasting millions of years of human evolution, however.
This has been the recommendation for general health for as long as I have been alive. Fiber is really important and there are plenty of easy healthy options that are cheap, unlike the astroturfed beef checkoff primal diet
The charitable interpretation is "just eat more fiber, regardless of the rest"
nothrowaways
today at 7:38 PM
> They showed that colonizing the guts of young mice with this bacterial species inhibited their performance on the object recognition and maze escape tasks, and that this deficit correlated with a reduction of activity in the hippocampus.
riazrizvi
today at 7:26 PM
Great info. This is one of those things that it is much faster for an individual to take into their own hands to prove out, rather than waiting for the system to provide us with an answer. Too many decision makers who are unlikely to all be aligned with our own individual interests.
dharmatech
today at 7:41 PM
The book
"Why Isn't My Brain Working?"
by Datis Kharrazian
published in 2014 talked about this over a decade ago.
steve1977
today at 5:42 PM
[flagged]
in mice is clearly in the subhead.
The connection between gut-brain has been studied in humans, as well as the effect of diet and gut bacteria on brain functions.
And in this case it sounds like the pathway to determining if this has an effect in humans as well might be relatively short given there is a pool of patients receiving vagus nerve stimulation for other things that might provide data.
Vagus Nerve treatments also exist as well and are highly observable.
... in mice. So if any of this held in humans, I think you'd see reversal of old-age memory problems in people treated with antibiotics that kill Parabacteroides goldsteinii.
As far as I know, no such effect has been observed.
And this article claims inflamation from that strain, the NIH claims otherwise: "Parabacteroides goldsteinii
is a next-generation probiotic gut bacterium with significant anti-inflammatory and metabolic benefits, often reduced in obese or diseased states. "
It's possible the specifics are different but that the overall idea still could work for humans. It seems worth at least exploring.
Mice mice mice. Tell me when you test on humans
I smell bad data. This sounds too good to be true and most studies of this kind have turned out to be false a few years down the line.
Edit: one of many examples: https://www.science.org/content/article/journal-retracts-inf...
It doesn't seem to link to any data at all so we can't check, but I wouldn't be entirely surprised if they used the "standard" P=0.05.
I think for something this unexpected you'd want a much lower P.