Gut Microbiome Composition and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Abstract

The human gut microbiome may play a key role in mental health as researchers continue to elucidate new pathways of communication between it and the central nervous system. This axis opens a new avenue of research aiming to establish if there are connections between microbiome composition and mental health disorders such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Prior studies have found a handful of bacterial families associated with ADHD incidence but have been limited in their scope and in some cases provided conflicting results. The goal of this project is to corroborate and expand upon the work of previous studies by analyzing connections between ADHD and the microbiome within a large publicly available dataset, the American Gut Project. My project identifies several bacterial strains significant to ADHD incidence as well as its connection to bacterial diversity overall. Potential confounding factors are accounted for using the Rubin Causal Model. Finally, several machine learning techniques are used to attempt to predict ADHD incidence from bacterial counts of significant species. Their performance is recorded and compared with one another.