General Medicine Department, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China.
Key Laboratory of Post-Neuroinjury Neuro-repair and Regeneration in Central Nervous System, Ministry of Education, Tianjin Neurological Institute, Tianjin, China.
Indoor Air. 2022 Jul;32(7):e13067. doi: 10.1111/ina.13067.
Despite accumulative literature reporting negative impacts of high-concentration toluene, cognitive effects of toluene at low concentration are still unclear. Twenty-two healthy college students were exposed in a closed environmental chamber to investigate the influence of indoor toluene on cognitive performance and brain activity. During each toluene exposure condition (0 ppb, 17.5 ppb, 35 ppb, and 70 ppb), attention network test and electroencephalogram (EEG) recording were synchronously performed after 4-hour toluene exposure. Characteristic neural oscillation patterns in three attention networks were compared between four groups. The statistical analyses indicated that short-term exposure to toluene had no significant impact on behavioral performance of attention network. However, there was a significant increase in the power of theta and alpha band of executive network and orienting network in the whole brain, especially in frontal region when exposed to toluene. Besides, no significant difference was observed in alerting network. The alternations in neural oscillation demonstrated that more effort was required to accomplish the same tasks when exposed to toluene. The present study revealed that short-term exposure to toluene affected brain activity of attention network even at low concentration, which provided a theoretical basis for the development of safer evaluation methods and standards in the future.
尽管有大量文献报道高浓度甲苯对人体的负面影响，但低浓度甲苯对认知功能的影响仍不清楚。本研究选取 22 名健康大学生，在封闭环境舱内暴露于不同浓度（0 ppb、17.5 ppb、35 ppb 和 70 ppb）的甲苯中，考察室内甲苯暴露对认知表现和脑活动的影响。在 4 小时的甲苯暴露后，同步进行注意网络测试和脑电图（EEG）记录。比较了四个组在三个注意网络中特征性的神经振荡模式。统计分析表明，短期甲苯暴露对注意网络的行为表现没有显著影响。然而，在整个大脑中，执行网络和定向网络的θ和α频段的功率显著增加，尤其是在前额区域。而警觉网络则没有显著差异。神经振荡的改变表明，在暴露于甲苯时，完成相同任务需要更多的努力。本研究表明，即使在低浓度下，短期暴露于甲苯也会影响注意网络的大脑活动，为未来开发更安全的评估方法和标准提供了理论依据。
