Table 1.

Longitudinal study design.

	Week-2	Week 0 BDL/sham surgery	Week 2	Week 4	Week 6	Week 8
	Stool collection Start of probiotic treatment	Blood sampling Stool collection MRS scan	Blood sampling Stool collection Start of rifaximin treatment	Blood sampling Stool collection MRS scan Open field	Blood sampling Stool collection MRS scan Open field	Blood sampling Stool collection MRS scan Open field Sacrifice and organ collection
nnon-treated		H:29/C:15/B:9	H:10/C:15	H:26/C:15/B:9/O-F:26	H:22/C:14/O-F:22	H:22/C:9/B:4/O-F:5
nprobiotics+rifaximin		H:9/C:9/B:6	H:9/C:9	H:9/C:9 /B:6/O-F:9	H:9/ C:9/O-F:9	H:8/C:8/B:5/O-F:7
nrifaximin		H:12/C:12/B:10	H:12/C:12	H:12/C:12/B:10/O-F:11	H:11/C:11/O-F:11	H:8/C:8/B:8/O-F:8

The number of rats (n) measured in every group are indicated for each week and each type of measures: ‘H’ stands for MRS scan in the hippocampus and ‘C’ for MRS scan in the cerebellum, ‘B’ for the rats whose bifidobacteria in the feces were analysed, and ‘O-F’ for the rats who undergone open field test. Of note, for blood sampling we used the same number of rats as for the MRS scan (data not included in the table for readability).