Fig. 7

Diet rich in microbiota-accessible carbohydrate prevented cognitive impairment in diet-induced obese mice. Nest building and temporal order memory were performed to evaluate the cognition of the mice. a and b The ability to build a nest (nesting behavior), reflecting activities of daily living in rodents, is altered in mice fed HF-FD for 15 weeks, as indicated by lower nest score (see methods) (a) and increased amount of untorn nesting material (b) (n = 15). c Representative nest of control, HF-FD, and HF-MAC groups. d–f Temporal order memory test. d The discrimination ratio. e The total object exploration time. f Show representative track plots of control, HF-FD ,and HF-MAC groups recorded by SMART Video tracking system in the testing phase. Blue dot and yellow crucifix denote an object that was moved to an old familiar location and an object that moved to a recent familiar location in the testing phase respectively. Note that the control diet mouse spent more time exploring the old familiar object, whereas the HF-FD diet mouse did not show preference to the old familiar object. Correlation between levels of gut Bacteroidetes and the nest score (g), untorn nesting material (h), or the discrimination ratio (i), values are mean ± SEM. ^*P < 0.05 vs. con. ^#P < 0.05 vs. HF-FD