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

Kód výsledku v 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>

Výsledek na webu

<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>

Jazyk výsledku

angličtina

Název v původním jazyce

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

Popis výsledku v původním jazyce

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&apos;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.

Název v anglickém jazyce

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

Popis výsledku anglicky

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&apos;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.

Druh

J_imp - Článek v periodiku v databázi Web of Science

CEP obor

—

OECD FORD obor

10602 - Biology (theoretical, mathematical, thermal, cryobiology, biological rhythm), Evolutionary biology

Projekt

<a href="/cs/project/GA22-20785S" target="_blank" >GA22-20785S: Efekt infekce toxoplasmou a cytomegalovirem na kognitivní výkon – longitudinální, průřezová a retrospektivní studie</a><br>

Návaznosti

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Rok uplatnění

2023

Kód důvěrnosti údajů

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Název periodika

Folia Parasitologica

ISSN

0015-5683

e-ISSN

1803-6465

Svazek periodika

70

Číslo periodika v rámci svazku

28. listopadu 2023

Stát vydavatele periodika

CZ - Česká republika

Počet stran výsledku

13

Strana od-do

020

Kód UT WoS článku

001113070800001

EID výsledku v databázi Scopus

2-s2.0-85179640452