Figure 3. Correlation networks of microbiota, cognitive tests and brain MRS values in all cirrhotic patients.

Red nodes: stool bacterial families, light green: cognitive test results, dark green: brain MRS values, blue nodes: serum results. Red connections between nodes indicate negative correlation while blue connections are positive linkages. WM: right parietal white matter, PGM: posterior gray matter, ACC: anterior cingulate cortex, Cho: creatine ratio of choline, mI: creatine ratio of myoinositol, Glx: creatine ratio of glutamate + glutamine, BDT: block design test, DST: digit symbol test, NCT-A: number connection test-A, NCT-B: number connection test-B, Dotting: serial dotting test, LTT: line tracing test, targets and lures: outcomes of inhibitory control test. A high score on targets, digit symbol and block design indicates good cognitive performance while a high score on the rest of the cognitive tests suggests the opposite. Cirrhosis network: In all cirrhosis subjects, there were expected positive linkages between Glx, MELD and ammonia and negative between these and mI and Cho. These were related to poor cognitive performance. Autochthonous taxa (Lachnospiraceae, Ruminococcaeae and Incertae sedis XIV) were negatively correlated with MELD score and Glx while potentially pathogenic Enterococcaceae were positively related to MELD.