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Growing evidence implicates the gut microbiome in cognition. Viruses, the most abundant life entities on the planet, are a commonly overlooked component of the gut virome, dominated by the Caudovirales and Microviridae bacteriophages. Here, we show in a discovery (n = 114) and a validation cohort (n = 942) that subjects with increased Caudovirales and Siphoviridae levels in the gut microbiome had better performance in executive processes and verbal memory. Conversely, increased Microviridae levels were linked to a greater impairment in executive abilities. Microbiota transplantation from human donors with increased specific Caudovirales (>90% from the Siphoviridae family) levels led to increased scores in the novel object recognition test in mice and up-regulated memory-promoting immediate early genes in the prefrontal cortex. Supplementation of the Drosophila diet with the 936 group of lactococcal Siphoviridae bacteriophages resulted in increased memory scores and upregulation of memory-involved brain genes. Thus, bacteriophages warrant consideration as novel actors in the microbiome-brain axis. ; This work was partially funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Madrid, Spain) through the project PI15/01934, PI18/01022, PI21/01361) to J.M.F.-R. and the project PI20/01090 (co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund. "A way to make Europe") to J.M.-P., the grants SAF2015-65878-R from the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Prometeo/2018/A/133 from Generalitat Valenciana, Spain and also by the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) funds, European Commission (FP7, NeuroPain #2013-602891), the Catalan Government (AGAUR, #SGR2017-669, #2017 SGR- 734, ICREA Academia Award 2015 to R.M. and ICREA Academia Award 2022 to J.M.F.R.), the Spanish Instituto de Salud Carlos III (RTA, #RD16/0017/0020), the European Regional Development Fund (project No. 01.2.2-LMT-K-718-02-0014) under grant agreement with the Research Council of Lithuania (LMTLT), and the Project ThinkGut (EFA345/19) 65% co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Interreg V-A Spain-France-Andorra programme (POCTEFA 2014-2020). CIBERobn is also co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund. We also acknowledge the funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (RTI2018-099200-B-I00), and the Generalitat of Catalonia (Agency for Management of University and Research grants (2017SGR696) and Department of Health (SLT002/16/00250)) to R.M M.A.-R. is funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Río Hortega (CM19/00190). J.M.-P. is funded by the Miguel Servet Program from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII CP18/00009), co-funded by the European Social Fund "Investing in your future." A.C.-N. is funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Sara Borrell. MMG was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities RTI2018-094248-B-I00.

Growing evidence implicates the gut microbiome in cognition. Viruses, the most abundant life entities on the planet, are a commonly overlooked component of the gut virome, dominated by the Caudovirales and Microviridae bacteriophages. Here, we show in a discovery (n = 114) and a validation cohort (n = 942) that subjects with increased Caudovirales and Siphoviridae levels in the gut microbiome had better performance in executive processes and verbal memory. Conversely, increased Microviridae levels were linked to a greater impairment in executive abilities. Microbiota transplantation from human donors with increased specific Caudovirales (>90% from the Siphoviridae family) levels led to increased scores in the novel object recognition test in mice and up-regulated memory-promoting immediate early genes in the prefrontal cortex. Supplementation of the Drosophila diet with the 936 group of lactococcal Siphoviridae bacteriophages resulted in increased memory scores and upregulation of memory-involved brain genes. Thus, bacteriophages warrant consideration as novel actors in the microbiome-brain axis. ; This work was partially funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Madrid, Spain) through the project PI15/01934, PI18/01022, PI21/01361) to J.M.F.-R. and the project PI20/01090 (co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund . "A way to make Europe") to J.M.-P., the grants SAF2015-65878-R from the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness , Prometeo/2018/A/133 from Generalitat Valenciana, Spain and also by the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) funds, European Commission (FP7, NeuroPain #2013- 602891 ), the Catalan Government (AGAUR, #SGR2017-669 , #2017 SGR- 734, ICREA Academia Award 2015 to R.M. and ICREA Academia Award 2022 to J.M.F.R.), the Spanish Instituto de Salud Carlos III (RTA, #RD16/0017/0020 ), the European Regional Development Fund (project No. 01.2.2-LMT-K-718-02-0014) under grant agreement with the Research Council of Lithuania (LMTLT), and the Project ThinkGut (EFA345/19) 65% co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Interreg V-A Spain-France-Andorra programme (POCTEFA 2014-2020). CIBERobn is also co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund. We also acknowledge the funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities ( RTI2018-099200-B-I00 ), and the Generalitat of Catalonia (Agency for Management of University and Research grants ( 2017SGR696 ) and Department of Health (SLT002/16/00250)) to R.M M.A.-R. is funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III , Río Hortega ( CM19/00190 ). J.M.-P. is funded by the Miguel Servet Program from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III ( ISCIII CP18/00009 ), co-funded by the European Social Fund "Investing in your future." A.C.-N. is funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III , Sara Borrell. MMG was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities RTI2018-094248-B-I00.