Liver cirrhosis accounts for over one million deaths per year worldwide [1]. Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) - one of its most severe complications - is a brain dysfunction mainly caused by liver insufficiency and portosystemic shunting [2,3]. Current guidelines roughly divide HE into overt HE (OHE) and covert HE (CHE), and although patients with CHE may only develop hard to detect or subclinical mental alterations, it is associated with impaired quality of life and each episode of OHE may contribute to further cognitive impairment [4,5].