Abstract
Perturbations to the gut microbiome are implicated in altered neurodevelopmental trajectories that may shape life span risk for emotion dysregulation and affective disorders. However, the sensitive periods during which the microbiome may influence neurodevelopment remain understudied. We investigated relationships between gut microbiome composition across infancy and temperament at 12 months of age. In 67 infants, we examined if gut microbiome composition assessed at 1-3 weeks, 2, 6, and 12 months of age was associated with temperament at age 12 months. Stool samples were sequenced using the 16S Illumina MiSeq platform. Temperament was assessed using the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (IBQ-R). Beta diversity at age 1-3 weeks was associated with surgency/extraversion at age 12 months. Bifidobacterium and Lachnospiraceae abundance at 1-3 weeks of age was positively associated with surgency/extraversion at age 12 months. Klebsiella abundance at 1-3 weeks was negatively associated with surgency/extraversion at 12 months. Concurrent composition was associated with negative affectivity at 12 months, including a positive association with Ruminococcus-1 and a negative association with Lactobacillus. Our findings support a relationship between gut microbiome composition and infant temperament. While exploratory due to the small sample size, these results point to early and late infancy as sensitive periods during which the gut microbiome may exert effects on neurodevelopment.
Highlights
The human gastrointestinal tract is home to trillions of microbial cells that make up an ecosystem that is increasingly recognized as a central component of human physiology, health, and wellbeing (Bordenstein & Theis, 2015; Human Microbiome Project Consortium, 2012; Peterson et al, 2009)
Similar to findings from other infant microbiome studies (Hill et al, 2017; Niu et al, 2020), we found a significant increase in alpha diversity with age according to the Chao1 ( p < .001) and Shannon (p = .027) indices (Figures 1a and 1b)
Alpha diversity at age 2 months was inversely associated with negative affectivity scores at age 12 months, it did not reach the standard criteria for statistical significance (p = .06)
Summary
The human gastrointestinal tract is home to trillions of microbial cells that make up an ecosystem that is increasingly recognized as a central component of human physiology, health, and wellbeing (Bordenstein & Theis, 2015; Human Microbiome Project Consortium, 2012; Peterson et al, 2009). The first year of life is characterized by sensitive periods of development for both the brain and gut (Borre et al, 2014; Jašarević, Morrison, & Bale, 2016; Stilling, Dinan, & Cryan, 2014), and brain maturation coincides with pioneer microbial colonization of the gastrointestinal tract. Overlapping sensitive periods of these biologically interconnected systems suggests that maturation of the gut microbiome may have lifelong consequences for neuropsychological function. Preclinical studies support this hypothesis and indicate that dysbiosis in the gut during sensitive periods of early life development may detrimentally impact neurodevelopment in ways that shape emotion regulation and affective disorder risk across the life course (Rogers et al, 2016; Sampson & Mazmanian, 2015). Few studies have investigated associations between the microbiome and neurodevelopment of humans
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