Beste Christian, Getzmann Stephan, Gajewski Patrick D, Golka Klaus, Falkenstein Michael
Cognitive Neurophysiology, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors at the Technical University of Dortmund (IfADo), Dortmund, Germany.
Neurobiol Aging. 2014 May;35(5):1037-44. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2013.11.012. Epub 2013 Nov 20.
Goal-directed behavior is well-known to show declines in elderly individuals, possibly because of alterations in dopaminergic neural transmission. The dopaminergic system is modulated by a number of other different factors. One of these factors, which has attracted a considerable amount of interest in neurobiology, but has only rarely been examined with respect to its possible modulatory role for cognitive functions in elderly individuals, is latent Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) infection. Latent T. gondii infection may be of relevance to goal-directed behavior as it alters dopaminergic neural transmission. We examine goal-directed behavior in T. gondii IgG positive and negative elderly subjects in auditory distraction paradigm. We apply event-related potentials to examine which cognitive subprocesses are affected by latent T. gondii infection on a neurophysiological level. We show that latent T. gondii infection compromises the management of auditory distraction in elderly by specifically delaying processes of attentional allocation and disengagement. The results show that latent T. gondii infection is neglected but an important neurobiological modulator of cognitive functions in elderly individuals.
众所周知，目标导向行为在老年人中会出现衰退，这可能是由于多巴胺能神经传递的改变所致。多巴胺能系统受到许多其他不同因素的调节。其中一个因素，即潜伏性弓形虫（T. gondii）感染，在神经生物学领域引起了相当大的关注，但很少有人研究其对老年人认知功能可能的调节作用。潜伏性弓形虫感染可能与目标导向行为有关，因为它会改变多巴胺能神经传递。我们在听觉分心范式中研究了弓形虫IgG阳性和阴性老年受试者的目标导向行为。我们应用事件相关电位来研究潜伏性弓形虫感染在神经生理水平上影响哪些认知子过程。我们发现，潜伏性弓形虫感染通过特别延迟注意力分配和脱离过程，损害了老年人对听觉分心的管理。结果表明，潜伏性弓形虫感染虽被忽视，但却是老年人认知功能的重要神经生物学调节因子。
