Latent toxoplasmosis is the most widespread parasite infection in developed and developing countries. I'he prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection varies mostly between 20 to 80% in different territories. This form of toxoplasmosis is generally considered to be asymptomatic. Recently published results, however, suggest that the personality profiles of infected subjects differ from those of uninfected controls. These results, however, were obtained on non-standard populations (biologists or former acute toxoplasmosis patients). Here we studied the personality profiles of 191 young women tested for anti-Toxoplasma immunity during gravidity. The results showed that the differences between Toxoplasma-negative and loxoplasma-posilive subjects exits also in this sample of healthy women. The subjects with latent toxoplasmosis had higher intelligence, lower guilt proneness, and possibly also higher ergic tension. The difference in several other factors (desurgency/surgency, alaxia/protension, naiveté/shrewdness, and selfsentiment integration) concerned changes in the variances, rather than the mean values of the factors.
Latent toxoplasmosis has been previously found to cause behavioural and personality changes in humans, which are specific for each gender. Here we tested the stress hypothesis of these gender differences based on the assumption that latent toxoplasmosis causes long-term subliminal stress. In line with this hypothesis, the gender difference will appear specifically in situations with interpersonal context because in contrast to the typical individualistic coping style of men, women have a tendency to express elevated prosocial behaviour under stress. Altogether 295 biology students (29/191 females and 27/104 males infected by T. gondii) played a modified version of the Dictator Game and the Trust Game. As predicted, a gender difference in the effect of latent toxoplasmosis was found for the measure of reciprocal altruism in the Trust Game (p=0.016), but both genders appeared less generous when infected in the Dictator Game modified to minimize social connotation (p=0.048).
U řady neurodegenerativních chorob dochází ke změnám v čichovém vnímání, které lze vyšetřit psychofyzickými testy. Největší význam má vyšetření čichu u Alzheimerovy a Parkinsonovy choroby, u nichž se poruchy čichu objevují před ostatními klinickými příznaky. Pouhý anamnestický údaj o poruše čichu je u pacientů zcela nedostatečný. Pacienti si poruchu čichu často neuvědomují. Vyšetření čichu tak může včasně upozornit na přítomnost neurologické choroby či usnadnit diferenciální diagnostiku. Přehledový článek představuje povahu poruch čichu u vybraných neurodegenerativních onemocnění s důrazem na Alzheimerovu a Parkinsonovu chorobu, způsoby hodnocení kvanti‑ a kvalitativních poruch čichu se zaměřením na nejdostupnější psychofyzické testy, jimiž lze provádět rutinní vyšetření čichu v každodenní klinické praxi, a uplatnění vyšetření čichu v jejich diagnostice. U Alzheimerovy choroby je výrazněji postižena identifikace oproti detekčním prahům, zatímco u Parkinsonovy choroby je pokles napříč čichovými schopnostmi homogennější a prahy jsou zvýšeny více než u Alzheimerovy choroby., In many neurodegenerative diseases, changes in olfactory perception have been identified that can be tested with psychophysical tests. Olfactory testing is of particular significance in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, where olfactory decline precedes other clinical symptoms. Olfactory decline may indicate a neurological disorder, aid in differential diagnosis, or help to estimate disease prognosis. This review presents olfactory dysfunction profiles in selected neurodegenerative diseases with an emphasis on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, assessment of quanti- and qualitative olfactory dysfunction, focusing on widely used psychophysical tests suitable for routine olfactory testing in everyday clinical practice, and contribution of olfactory testing to the diagnosis of the selected neurodegenerative diseases. In Alzheimer’s disease, identification is more severely affected than detection thresholds, whereas in Parkinson’s disease, decline is more homogeneous across various olfactory measures and increase in detection thresholds is more prominent. Key words: olfaction – neurodegenerative diseases – hyposmia – anosmia – Alzheimer’s disease – Parkinson’s disease – mild cognitive impairment The authors declare they have no potential conflicts of interest concerning drugs, products, or services used in the study. The Editorial Board declares that the manuscript met the ICMJE “uniform requirements” for biomedical papers., and L. Martinec Nováková, H. Štěpánková, J. Vodička, J. Havlíček