Do you constantly suffer from brain fog or poor spatial awareness? Perhaps you have an algae virus to blame for those.
A group of researchers from the University of Nebraska and Johns Hopkins University stumbled upon this discovery by accident while they were trying to look into the microbes found in human throats.
To be more specific, they discovered that a certain algae virus called ATCV-1 can reside in an otherwise healthy human being, not progress into a disease, and still change the way your brain works in a negative manner.
But how did they come across such information? For a completely unrelated study, the researchers worked on 92 participants, of which around 40 of them carried the virus in their throats. They learned that this group scored significantly lower in visual processing tasks and attention span than those who tested negative.
Thinking that these findings need more backup or confirmation, a few weeks after, they extended the study to lab mice by infecting them with the same virus.
Although mice and humans are still completely different living things, the mice behavior was comparable and similar to those of humans who are also carrying the virus. When subjected to a series of tests, these mice had 30% less focus and attention span and took a much longer time in navigating a maze.
Many experts initially believed that the virus, which is found in algae that develops in several bodies of water such as ponds and lakes, was non-infectious.
Their study therefore may provide a clue as to the kind of impact microbes have on our bodies, including modifying genes that may only lead to physical and mental disorders. This virus, for example, has the tendency to change the genes in hippocampus, the section of the brain that is responsible for spatial awareness and memory organization.