Road traffic involved
All answered tests evaluating their memory, their fluency in oral expression and their ability to make decisions. Then the research team used so-called “exposure” maps which estimate the concentration of pollutants at the home address. The researchers were more particularly interested in pollutants linked to road traffic: fine particles with a diameter of less than 2.5 microns (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and soot carbon.
Result: for the most exposed participants, the researchers found a difference ranging from 1 to almost 5% in the cognitive performance score compared to the less exposed participants.
“The abilities most impacted are verbal fluency and executive functions,” says Bénédicte Jacquemin, a researcher at Inserm who led this work. “Nitrogen dioxide and PM2.5 particles impact verbal fluency more, while soot carbon has a greater impact on executive functions. »
The next step for the team will be “to observe the evolution over time of the cognitive functions of these adults, in order to see if exposure to pollution is also associated with a decline in cognitive functioning over time, a decline that may reflect early signs of dementia, both Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia in the elderly. »
From climate crisis to health crisis