Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) published a study last week that showed that both memory loss and brain changes were associated with PM2.5 air pollution (fine particulates).
The researchers studied older women in the Women’s Health Initiative, who had annual memory tests and either one or two brain MRIs. The study also included the women’s addresses from which the researchers were able to model air pollution exposure.
With the memory testing, women who lived in higher air pollution areas had a greater decline in immediate recall and new learning memory. With the MRIs, brain changes similar to those in Alzheimer’s disease were associated with higher exposure to PM2.5.
““This is the first study to really show, in a statistical model, that air pollution was associated with changes in people’s brains and that those changes were then connected with declines in memory performance,” said Andrew Petkus, assistant professor of clinical neurology at the Keck School of Medicine at USC.”
News about the article: https://news.usc.edu/163089/air-pollution-brain-changes-alzheimers-memory-usc-study/
The scientific article: https://academic.oup.com/brain/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/brain/awz348/5628036
11/25/2019
