3 ms·

Scientists Reveal Hidden Factor That May Boost Child's Brain Development

4 points by isaacfrond 3y ago

isaacfrond 3y ago
tl; dr Bonham and colleagues studied a cohort of 381 children from just 40 days to 10 years of age. Using genetic analysis, the researchers established the communities of bacteria present in the children's microbiome. The children were subjected to a range of age-appropriate cognitive testing and MRI scanning was used to assessed the structure of their brains. A clear associations was found between certain bacterial species and higher cognitive function, while other species were associated with lower cognitive scores. Computer models could also predict the structure and volume of different brain regions based on the child's microbial profile alone. However, it is still too early to determine whether a causal relationship exists between the microbial species and enhanced cognitive abilities.
isaacfrond 3y ago
I'm skeptical, but not yet to the point of finding it impossible. First of course: Correlation != Causation. Affluent families will eat different foods than poor families, but will also have more opportunities for cognitive development. So maybe this result is: Just in! Rich folk eat different stuff than poor folks. Second: the sample size is smallish. Not laughably smallish. But given the complexity of the microbiome, couldn't you predict pretty much anything? I'd suspect that after a random permutation of inputs and output, you could still predict anything. Probably, they controlled for this, but I'm still looking for the paper. Third: The age range from 40 days to 10 years is so large, huge changes will occurs in the microbiome in that time frame. Is there a magic thing, already in the gut of a 40 day year old baby, and still there 10 years later, that predicts brain size? That seems unlikely. update: Found the paper, still have to read it though. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.13.944181v5.full.pdf https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.13.944181v5....

4 points by isaacfrond 3y ago

tl; dr Bonham and colleagues studied a cohort of 381 children from just 40 days to 10 years of age. Using genetic analysis, the researchers established the communities of bacteria present in the children's microbiome. The children were subjected to a range of age-appropriate cognitive testing and MRI scanning was used to assessed the structure of their brains. A clear associations was found between certain bacterial species and higher cognitive function, while other species were associated with lower cognitive scores. Computer models could also predict the structure and volume of different brain regions based on the child's microbial profile alone. However, it is still too early to determine whether a causal relationship exists between the microbial species and enhanced cognitive abilities.

isaacfrond 3y ago

I'm skeptical, but not yet to the point of finding it impossible. First of course: Correlation != Causation. Affluent families will eat different foods than poor families, but will also have more opportunities for cognitive development. So maybe this result is: Just in! Rich folk eat different stuff than poor folks. Second: the sample size is smallish. Not laughably smallish. But given the complexity of the microbiome, couldn't you predict pretty much anything? I'd suspect that after a random permutation of inputs and output, you could still predict anything. Probably, they controlled for this, but I'm still looking for the paper. Third: The age range from 40 days to 10 years is so large, huge changes will occurs in the microbiome in that time frame. Is there a magic thing, already in the gut of a 40 day year old baby, and still there 10 years later, that predicts brain size? That seems unlikely. update: Found the paper, still have to read it though. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.13.944181v5.full.pdf https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.13.944181v5....