Theories to Digest - links between diet and Autism

17 Jul 2013

Irish Examiner article by Clarie Droney discuses links between diet and Autism and how UCC scientists led by Professor John Cryan have discovered a link between gut bacteria and autistic behaviours. 

In a clinical trial using mice, researchers found  gut bacteria is essential for the development of normal social behaviours. "Diet is one of the biggest things that is able to govern composition of gut bacteria. Changing your diet will change how you behave no matter who you are," says Professor John Cryan senior author on the study and head of the Department of Anatomy & Neuroscience at UCC.

Cryan and his team compared the social behaviours of mice who were artificially raised without any bacteria in the gut and those that had gut bacteria. The mice without bacterial exhibited similar behaviours as people with ASD showing a lack of sociability and had deficits in social cognition.

Download the full article hereTheories to Digest - Irish Examiner June 27th 2013 (1,634kB)