{
  "id": 9655059,
  "title": "Microbes on the Mind: Multi-modal Neuroimaging Reveals Gut-Brain Axes in Infants",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/24/microbes-on-the-mind-multi-modal-neuroimaging-reveals-gut-brain-axes",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-09-24T00:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "bioRxiv",
    "slug": "biorxiv",
    "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.23.753825v1?rss=1"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Researchers have uncovered a connection between the development of the gut microbiome in infants and the maturation of their brains. The study focused on 223 typically developing infants aged between 0 and 3 years, employing multi-modal MRI scans alongside fecal shotgun metagenomics.\n\nBy conducting a microbiome-wide association analysis, the researchers found that certain microbial features were linked to aspects of cortical morphology, white-matter microstructure, and functional networks within the infants' brains. Furthermore, regularized canonical correlation analysis revealed patterns of structural-metabolic and functional-taxonomic covariance.\n\nTo validate these findings, sparse partial least-squares analysis was applied, which not only replicated the full-sample CCA patterns but also demonstrated their defining structural and functional phenotypes. This cross-method corroboration provided strong evidence to support the initial results.\n\nInterestingly, the longitudinal analysis of canonical scores showed that there was no significant covariation between the two. However, earlier neuroimaging CCA1 scores were observed to predict microbiome CCA1 scores one to six months later, forming a bidirectional autoregressive cross-lag model. These observational findings reveal coordinated developmental patterns and temporal ordering, shedding light on the relationship between the gut microbiome and early brain development, without establishing causality.",
  "summary": "The gut microbiome develops from birth and is associated with cognition and mental health, but its relationship with early brain maturation remains unclear. We studied 223 typically developing infants aged 0-3 years using multimodal MRI and paired fecal shotgun metagenomics. Microbiome-wide association analysis linked microbial features to cortical morphology, white-matter microstructure, and…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}