Parasitic manipulation or side effects? The effects of past Toxoplasma gondii and Borrelia spp. infections on human personality and cognitive performance are not mediated by impaired health
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11310%2F23%3A10472361" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11310/23:10472361 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=z8E2wgC3-G" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=z8E2wgC3-G</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.14411/fp.2023.020" target="_blank" >10.14411/fp.2023.020</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Parasitic manipulation or side effects? The effects of past Toxoplasma gondii and Borrelia spp. infections on human personality and cognitive performance are not mediated by impaired health
Original language description
Bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi s. l. and even more the protist Toxoplasma gondii Nicolle et Manceaux, 1908, are known to affect the behaviour and mental health of their animal and human hosts. Both pathogens infect a significant fraction of human population, both are neurotropic and survive in the host's body for a long time. While latent infections were thought to be clinically asymptomatic, recent studies suggest otherwise, revealing adverse effects on human health. It was hypothesised that the specific behavioural effects of these pathogens may be side effects of general health impairments in infected individuals. This hypothesis was tested using about one hour-long survey consisting of questionnaires and performance tests on a cohort of 7,762 members of the internet population. Results showed that individuals infected with T. gondii reported worse physical and mental health, and those infected with Borrelia spp. reported worse physical health than uninfected controls. Furthermore, infected and noninfected individuals differed in several personality traits, including conscientiousness, pathogen disgust, injury disgust, Machiavellianism, narcissism, tribalism, anti-authoritarianism, intelligence, reaction time, and precision. While the majority of behavioural effects associated with Borrelia infection were similar to those associated with Toxoplasma infection, some differences were observed, such as performance in the Stroop test. Path analyses and nonparametric partial Kendall correlation tests showed that these effects were not mediated by impaired health in infected individuals, contradicting the side effects hypothesis.
Czech name
—
Czech description
—
Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
—
OECD FORD branch
10602 - Biology (theoretical, mathematical, thermal, cryobiology, biological rhythm), Evolutionary biology
Result continuities
Project
<a href="/en/project/GA22-20785S" target="_blank" >GA22-20785S: Effects of toxoplasma and CMV infection on cognitive performance – longitudinal, cross-sectional, and case-control studies</a><br>
Continuities
P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)
Others
Publication year
2023
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Folia Parasitologica
ISSN
0015-5683
e-ISSN
1803-6465
Volume of the periodical
70
Issue of the periodical within the volume
28. listopadu 2023
Country of publishing house
CZ - CZECH REPUBLIC
Number of pages
13
Pages from-to
020
UT code for WoS article
001113070800001
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-85179640452