gene and environment interaction

Healthy controls without any mental disorder participated in the project ‘Psychosocial and biological predictors of therapeutic out - come of chronic affective and psychotic disorders’. Methods: A total of 115 persons (65 women, 56.5%) completed the computerized test Conners‘ Continuous Performance Test II Ver - sion 5 for Windows (CPT II V.5), and were interviewed for depression, demographic and health status. All participants were serologically tested and reliably divided into Toxoplasma negative or positive subgroups. Results: Toxoplasma positive subgroup of healthy subjects showed statistically significant tendency to improve their performance in the course of the test expressed by Hit Reaction Time Block Change parameter in Conner’s CPT II. Conclusion: We found out gradual improvement of attention/vigilance in healthy toxoplasma-infected subjects using specific method. The overall acceleration of reaction times may be related to attention deterioration of Toxoplasma cyst carriers at the beginning of the test and their preserved capacity to balance early vigilance decrement. This result represents a first step to examine long-term neurotropic effect of latent TG parasitosis on psychotic and non-psychotic population.