Figure 5. Correlation networks of microbiota, cognitive tests and brain MRS values in cirrhotic patients without HE.

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. No-HE patients showed similar correlations between autochthonous taxa and good cognition and lesser neuro-inflammation while members of Proteobacteria such as Enterobacteriaceae and Pastuerellaceae were linked with worse neuro-inflammation as were Streptococcaceae.