Elevated airborne manganese and low executive function in school-aged children in Brazil

Performance on the traditional and the touch screen, tablet versions of the Corsi Block and the Tower of Hanoi tasks

“…the Tower of Hanoi and Corsi Block tasks and findings have important implications for the use of these tasks which are widely administered to a range of populations (e.g. Carvalho, et al, 2014;Guevara et al, 2012). Results may not however be generalizable to other cognitive tasks.…”

“…Similarly the Corsi Block task has been employed with children, adolescents and adults (e.g. Carvalho et al, 2014;Piccardi, et al, 2008) in both normative (Shah, Prados, Gamble, De Lillo, & Gibson, 2013) and clinical (Stoffers, Berendse, Deijen, & Wolters, 2003) populations. In recent years, researchers and practitioners have employed new (i.e.…”

Pediatric anxiety and/or depression problems : associations with PM10, fly ash, and metal exposure.

“…Occupational studies found that excessive exposure to airborne manganese could lead to both motor and cognitive deficits, causing parkinsonian-like disease (91). More recently, findings from a study conducted in Brazil examining behavior traits in school-aged children exposed to airborne manganese were published in several research articles (93)(94)(95). Investigators found that children with elevated airborne manganese levels had significantly increased inattention and externalizing behaviors (93).…”

“…Additionally, investigators reported positive associations between airborne manganese exposure and lower neuropsychological performance of executive function, IQ, verbal working memory, and strategic visual formation (94).…”

“…Pathophysiological processes for anxiety and depression are not completely understood. Only a few studies have begun to assess the role of metal exposure in behavioral and emotional problems in children (93)(94)(95)165).…”