Date of Award

2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Cook, Peter

Area of Concentration

Biopsychology

Abstract

The rates of children diagnosed with developmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have exponentially increased over the last 20 years, which has placed a heavy burden on both caregivers and psychiatrists. The neurobiology of these disorders has been increasingly well studied, but the root causes of these disorders remain poorly understood by the neuroscience/psychiatric community. Most neuroscientists suggest a combination of genetic and environmental factors are to blame, but the question remains: why are these disorders becoming so prevalent in our society, now more than ever before? One proposed genetic-environmental factor is heavy metal toxicity. Heavy metals get into the body in numerous ways and stay there for months to years unless removed. The people who are most affected by these neurotoxins are fetuses growing in the mother’s womb. If the mother is actively plagued by heavy metal toxicity, then the mother can pass that down through the placenta and into a developing fetus’ brain, causing all sorts of changes to the brain’s connectivity patterns which can contribute to developmental and psychiatric disorders once they are born like ASD and ADHD. In this systematic review, 22 unique studies were compiled and examined to examine potential associations between heavy metal toxicity and developmental disorders by looking for a difference in heavy metal exposure between children with these disorders and control subjects. This review includes studies that measure different types of heavy metals and different sample types. All 22 of these studies found a positive correlation between certain heavy metals like mercury and lead and the development of ASD or ADHD or both.

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