by Enhancing gut-brain communication reversed cognitive decline, improved memory formation in aging mice
https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2026/03/gut-brain-cognitive-decline.html
To test their theory that the gut microbiome plays a role in the “senior moments” many of us experience, the researchers housed young (2-month-old) mice together with old (18-month-old) mice. Living (and pooping) in close proximity exposed the young mice to the gut microbiomes of the old mice and vice versa. After one month, the researchers examined the compositions of the microbiomes of the old and young animals.
They found that the shared digs caused the microbiomes of the young mice to more closely resemble that of the older animals. When they compared the abilities of the mice to recognize a novel object, or to find the exit in a maze, the young mice with “old” microbiomes performed significantly more poorly than their peers — showing less curiosity about the unfamiliar object and bumbling about the maze in ways similar to that of old animals.
