A new study reveals that even brief exposure to particulate matter air pollution can significantly impair cognitive abilities, challenging everyday activities like shopping and highlighting the need for urgent environmental action.
Short-term exposure to particulate matter (PM) air pollution can dent cognitive abilities, making ordinary tasks like a supermarket shop more difficult, a new study has found. Published in Nature Communications, researchers from the Universities of Birmingham and Manchester discovered that high concentrations of PM can impair emotional interpretation and focus on tasks.
Using candle smoke to simulate air pollution, the participants were subjected to high levels of PM or clean air. Their cognitive functions were tested before and four hours after exposure, measuring aspects such as working memory, selective attention, emotion recognition, psychomotor speed and sustained attention.
The findings revealed that selective attention and emotion recognition were negatively impacted by air pollution, highlighting immediate detrimental effects on brain functions crucial for daily activities.
“Our study provides compelling evidence that even short-term exposure to particulate matter can have immediate negative effects on brain functions essential for daily activities, such as doing the weekly supermarket shop,” co-author Thomas Faherty, a post-doctoral researcher in the school of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham, said in a news release.
Co-author Francis Pope, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Birmingham, underscored the larger implications, adding, “Poor air quality undermines intellectual development and worker productivity, with significant societal and economic implications in a high-tech world reliant on cognitive excellence.”
The research suggests that inflammation caused by pollution may be to blame for these deficits. While emotion recognition and selective attention were shown to suffer, working memory remained unaffected, indicating varying resilience among different brain functions to short-term pollution exposure.
For instance, selective attention, vital in decision-making and goal-oriented behavior, helps prioritize items during shopping while ignoring distractions. On the other hand, working memory, crucial for tasks requiring multitasking, was not similarly impacted, indicating it may be more resilient to brief pollution exposure.
The study also highlighted socio-emotional cognition, essential for socially acceptable behavior through detecting and interpreting emotions in oneself and others.
Gordon McFiggans, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Manchester and a study co-author, emphasized the importance of understanding these impacts further, especially on vulnerable populations.
“This study shows the importance of understanding the impacts of air pollution on cognitive function and the need to study the influences of different sources of pollution on brain health in vulnerable older members of society,” he said in the news release.
The study’s innovative approach — manipulating inhalation routes of PM air pollution — provides valuable insights into how different pathways affect cognitive functions. The researchers stress the need for further investigation into long-term impacts and potential protective measures.
Globally, air pollution is a leading environmental risk factor for human health, contributing to premature mortality and affecting cardiovascular, respiratory and neurological health. PM2.5, a particularly harmful pollutant, was responsible for around 4.2 million deaths in 2015 alone, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
As the detrimental effects of poor air quality on cognitive functions become clearer, the call for stricter air quality regulations and public health measures grows louder. This research underscores the pressing need for global action to mitigate pollution’s harmful effects on health and productivity in an increasingly cognitive-reliant world.