Relationship between gut microbiota diversity and vagal tone of children attending affluent vs.

non-affluent schools

McKensie MacGrath

Undergraduate senior student

Department of Psychology

Abstract. The gut microbiota is the collective microorganisms in the gut. The gut-brain axis is

the bidirectional communication between the brain and the gastrointestinal tract. There is little

known about the mechanisms involved in the gut-brain axis. There has been increasing evidence

that the vagus nerve is a direct connection between the gut and the central nervous system.

Studying the relationship between the vagus nerve and the gut microbiota seems like a necessary

step in understanding the gut-brain axis. This study aims to research the relationship between gut

microbiota diversity and vagal tone of children attending affluent and non-affluent schools.
 Aims and importance. In recent years, there has been a substantial increase in research

on the gut microbiota, the collective microorganisms in the gut, and the gut-brain axis, the

bidirectional communication between the brain and the gastrointestinal tract. Research has found

that there is a significant relationship between the gut microbiota and psychological and

neurodevelopmental disorders, like Autism Spectrum Disorder (Xu et al., 2017), depression

(Limbana et al., 2020), and schizophrenia (Szeligowski et al., 2020), and gastrointestinal

disorders (Kennedy et al., 2014). There is also evidence that the gut microbiota may have an

impact on brain development (Dinan & Cryan, 2016) and function (Mohajeri et al., 2018).

Despite research showing the importance of the gut-brain axis for psychological and body health,

there is little known about the mechanisms involved in the gut-brain axis. However, there has

been increasing evidence that the vagus nerve acts as the modulator in the gut-brain axis and is a

direct connection between the gut and the central nervous system (Severance & Yolken, 2020;

Bonaz et al., 2018). Several studies have used vagal tone to study gastrointestinal physiology

(Pellissier et al., 2010; Pellissier et al., 2014; Jarrett et al., 2008). As the gut microbiota has been

known as a critical mediator in the gut-brain axis (Fülling et al., 2019), studying the relationship

between the vagus nerve and the gut microbiota seems like a necessary next step in

understanding the mechanisms of the gut-brain axis.

There has also been relatively little research on the link between socioeconomic status

and gut microbiota diversity, but current research has shown that lower socioeconomic status is

associated with lower diversity in the gut microbiome (Miller et al., 2016; Bowyer et al., 2019).

Due to these findings, this study aims to research the relationship between the gut microbiota

diversity and children attending affluent and non-affluent schools, the relationship between vagal

tone and children that attend affluent and non-affluent schools, the relationship between vagal
tone and gut microbiota diversity, and the relationship among gut microbiota diversity and vagal

tone in children that attend affluent and non-affluent school.

This research is important in order to further the understanding of the relationships within

the gut-brain axis, but also to establish evidence of the importance of promoting microbiota

health and diversity in children. As previously mentioned, there is a link between the gut

microbiota and psychological, neurodevelopmental, and gastrointestinal disorders. With further

research, the state of the gut microbiome may become a conclusive risk factor for these

disorders. However, children with lower socioeconomic statuses are likely have less availability

to foods that promote a healthy gut microbiome and are also likely to receive less of these foods

while at school than children that attend affluent schools. With this being said, research showing

that there is a link between vagal tone, gut microbiota diversity, and level of affluence in schools

could lead to changes that increase the availability of healthy microbiome-promoting foods at

schools.

Research design. I plan to recruit participants from two different high schools in

Tuscaloosa, AL: Central High School, a public school, and Tuscaloosa Academy, a private

school. Once participants are cleared of any exclusionary criteria (i.e., gastrointestinal disorders,

antibiotic use within the last six months, older than seventeen years old, etc.), they will give a

fecal sample as it is the most non-invasive form of collecting gut microbiota samples (Tang et

al., 2020). The participants will then have their vagal tone measured using heart rate variability

(root mean successive difference), because it is a non-invasive method for measuring vagal tone.

This will be measured during baseline and during test meals using electrocardiograms. The gut

microbiota sample will have bacterial DNA extraction, amplification, and sequencing performed
on it. I will then analyze the data using ANOVA, MANOVA, and correlational analysis to find

the previously listed relationships.

I hypothesize that participants that attend Tuscaloosa Academy will have higher gut

microbiota diversity and higher vagal tone than participants that attend Central High School. I

predict that vagal tone and gut microbiota diversity will be positively correlated. I also predict

that there will be a relationship between which school the participant attends and their gut

microbiota diversity and vagal tone.

Novel aspects of the project. This research project is novel in the way that it attempts to

further the understanding of the gut-brain axis by researching the connection between the gut

microbiota and the vagal nerve, two important parts of the gut-brain axis. To my knowledge, no

other project has studied this connection.

Interdisciplinary nature of the project. This research project uses evidence and studies

variables from several fields, including biology, neuroscience, and neuroanthropology. The

biological discipline is evident in the gut microbiota and vagal nerve aspects of the project.

Neuroscience is involved through the gut-brain axis and the implications that a connection

between the gut microbiota and vagal nerve would have on that concept. The relationship

explored between affluence, the gut microbiota, and the vagal nerve is what makes this project

within the discipline of neuroanthropology, a rapidly emerging field (Lende & Downey, 2012),

despite some claims that the field is unnecessary (Roepstroff & Frith, 2012).
 References
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axis. Frontiers in Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2018.00049
Bowyer, R. C. E., Jackson, M. A., Le Roy, C. I., Lochlainn, M. N., Spector, T. D., Dowd, J. B., & Steves,
C. J. (2019). Socioeconomic status and the gut microbiome: A twinsUK cohort study.
Microorganisms, 7(1), 17. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms7010017
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 McKensie H. MacGrath
mhmacgrath@crimson.ua.edu (757)816-6180

Education
 Bachelor of Science, May 2021
 Undergraduate senior
 The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL
 Department of Psychology
 Honors College
 Major: Psychology Minor: Neuroscience
 Overall GPA: 3.69/4.00 Major GPA: 4.21/4.00

Research
 Undergraduate Research Assistant. Cognition, Brain, and Autism Laboratory at The
University of Alabama. (8/22/2020-Currently).
 Conduct single- and double-scoring of psychological questionnaires (i.e., Repetitive
Behavior Scale-Revised, Autism Spectrum Quotient, Social Responsiveness Scale,
and Social Communication Questionnaire)
 Complete single- and double-data entry; currently has completed 42% of data entry
divided among five undergraduate research assistants
 Aid in grant submission to ensure the renewal of grants that fund the study
 Perform office management tasks
 College of Arts and Sciences Support of Undergraduate REsearch (ASSURE) Grant
Awardee. (12/16/2020-Currently).
 Facilitated and collaborated with a faculty mentor to submit a research proposal
 Faculty mentor: Dr. Rajesh Kana, Professor in the Department of Psychology,
Director of the Center for Innovative Research in Autism, Director of the Cognition,
Brain, & Autism Laboratory
 Research the differences between the cortical morphology of the Theory-of-Mind
network in participants with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Typically Developing
participants
 Analyze pre-existing functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data

Skills and Certificates

 Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS)
 Microsoft Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)
 The Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI Program)
 Human Research - Non-Medical Investigators
 Human Research - IRB CITI 2018 Refresher Training Course
-Social/Behavioral/Educational