Association between gut permeability, brain volume, and cognition in healthy participants and patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder.

These findings extend earlier studies suggesting that increased bacterial translocation may negatively affect brain volume, which indirectly impacts cognition, even in this young healthy group. If replicated, this finding stresses the importance of a healthy gut for the development and optimal functioning of the brain. Absence of these associations in the SSD group may indicate that other factors such as allostatic load, chronic medication use and interrupted educational carrier had larger impact and attenuated the relative contribution of bacterial translocation.