(Newswire.net — January 4, 2015) — Baltimore, Maryland – The chlorovirus, ATCV-1, may essentially compromise cognitive activity, learning and memory, say scientists who were studying the affects of ATCV-1 to green algae. US scientists found that a person who has this virus becomes less intelligent. The scientists said that this is the first time the virus has been observed in humans.
“This is a striking example showing that the ‘innocuous’ microorganisms we carry can affect behavior and cognition,” said the leader of the project at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Maryland, a virologist Robert Yolken.
“All people have physiological differences, encoded in the set of genes each inherits from parents, yet some of these differences are fueled by the various microorganisms we harbor and the way they interact with our genes,” Yolken said.
Scientists discovered the virus by accident while working on an unrelated study of the microbes in the human throat. Of the 92 healthy adults shown in the study, nearly 44 percent of them had the virus, according to the authors.
Scientists found that the volunteers infected with the virus performed about 10 percent worse on cognitive tests. In addition, the researchers believe the presence of the virus is correlated with lower attention span and to “statistically significant decrease in visual processing and visual motor speed”.
”While the virus is found in freshwater, there was no indication the only people who had it were swimmers and boaters. These are agents that we carry around for a long time and that may have subtle effects on our cognition and behavior”, Yolken told Healthline.
“We’re really just starting to find out what some of these agents that we’re carrying around might actually do,” Yolken said.
The tests on mice confirmed findings, Newsweek reported. Research showed that ATCV-1 infected mice took 10 percent longer to find an exit from a maze than non-infected ones.