ArticleTranslational psychiatry2021
Gut microbial taxa elevated by dietary sugar disrupt memory function.
Article in Translational psychiatry, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 53 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
53 citing papers in PubMed, 88 citations in OpenAlex.
- Modulating the Gut-Microbiota-Brain Axis in Alzheimer's Disease: Therapeutic Potential of Nutritional and Metabolic Factors.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2026Review
- Neural mechanisms linking Western diet consumption and cognitive impairment: a role for the vagus nerve.Clinical science (London, England : 1979) · 2026Review
- The vagus nerve promotes memory in rats via nutrient-induced septo-hippocampal acetylcholine signaling.Nature communications · 2026Article
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- Short-term high-altitude exposure protects working memory by balancing intestinal microbiota.BMC microbiology · 2026Article
- Ershiwuwei Shanhu Pill ameliorates cognitive impairment in Alzheimer's disease mice by remodeling gut microbiota and host serum metabolites.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Article
- Impact of Diverse Dietary Patterns on Cognitive Health: Cumulative Evidence from Prospective Cohort Studies.Nutrients · 2025Review
- Adolescent nutritional influences on the brain: implications for eating behaviors.Neuropharmacology · 2025Review
- Association of sugar intake with incident dementia in the UK Biobank: a prospective cohort study.The journal of prevention of Alzheimer's disease · 2025Article
- Dietary sugar intake, genetic susceptibility, and risk of dementia: A prospective cohort study.The journal of prevention of Alzheimer's disease · 2025Article
- Endotoxemia-Induced Inflammation in the Absence of Obesity Is Associated With Decreased Anxiety-Like and Impulsive Behavior With no Effect on Learning and Memory.Comprehensive Physiology · 2025Article
- Item recognition is associated with gut microbiota composition in healthy humans.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
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- Compositional and functional gut microbiota alterations in mild cognitive impairment: links to Alzheimer's disease pathology.Alzheimer's research & therapy · 2025Article
- Gut Microbiota and Neurovascular Patterns in Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- Endotoxemia-induced inflammation in the absence of obesity decreases anxiety-like and impulsive behavior without affecting learning and memory.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Obesity-associated memory impairment and neuroinflammation precede widespread peripheral perturbations in aged rats.Immunity & ageing : I & A · 2025Article
- Effect of a specific food intervention with Tamogitake mushroom, Moringa leaves, or rice bran on intestinal microbiota and cognitive function in elderly Japanese.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Emerging evidence highlights a critical relationship between gut microbiota and neurocognitive development. Excessive consumption of sugar and other unhealthy dietary factors during early life developmental periods yields changes in the gut microbiome as well as neurocognitive impairments. However, it is unclear whether these two outcomes are functionally connected. Here we explore whether excessive early life consumption of added sugars negatively impacts memory function via the gut microbiome. Rats were given free access to a sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) during the adolescent stage of development. Memory function and anxiety-like behavior were assessed during adulthood and gut bacterial and brain transcriptome analyses were conducted. Taxa-specific microbial enrichment experiments examined the functional relationship between sugar-induced microbiome changes and neurocognitive and brain transcriptome outcomes. Chronic early life sugar consumption impaired adult hippocampal-dependent memory function without affecting body weight or anxiety-like behavior. Adolescent SSB consumption during adolescence also altered the gut microbiome, including elevated abundance of two species in the genus Parabacteroides (P. distasonis and P. johnsonii) that were negatively correlated with hippocampal function. Transferred enrichment of these specific bacterial taxa in adolescent rats impaired hippocampal-dependent memory during adulthood. Hippocampus transcriptome analyses revealed that early life sugar consumption altered gene expression in intracellular kinase and synaptic neurotransmitter signaling pathways, whereas Parabacteroides microbial enrichment altered gene expression in pathways associated with metabolic function, neurodegenerative disease, and dopaminergic signaling. Collectively these results identify a role for microbiota "dysbiosis" in mediating the detrimental effects of early life unhealthy dietary factors on hippocampal-dependent memory function.
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Registered trials
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