A patient can develop cognitive dysfunction and neuroinflammation after surgery. However, it is not known whether these pathological processes occur in people who live together with surgery patients. As an initial step to address this issue in animals, 2 mice with right common carotid arterial exposure were cage-mates with 3 non-surgery mice. Their learning and memory were tested starting 5 days after surgery. Their brain tissues were harvested 1 day or 5 days after surgery. The results showed that mice with surgery and cage-mates of these surgery mice had increased pro-inflammatory cytokines in the brain and dysfunction of learning and memory. Inhibition of inflammation attenuated the cognitive impairment of the cage-mates. These results suggest that dysfunction of complex behavior including learning and memory can occur in non-surgery cage-mates of surgery mice. Additional studies are needed to determine whether this phenomenon exists in larger animals and humans.

手术后患者可出现认知功能障碍和神经炎症。但是，尚不清楚这些病理过程是否发生在与手术患者一起生活的人中。解决动物问题的第一步，是将两只患有正确的颈总动脉暴露的小鼠与三只非手术小鼠的笼中配对。术后5天开始测试他们的学习和记忆能力。手术后1天或5天收集他们的脑组织。结果表明，进行手术的小鼠和这些手术小鼠的笼伴侣具有增加的脑内促炎细胞因子以及学习和记忆功能障碍。抑制炎症减弱了笼友的认知障碍。这些结果表明，在手术小鼠的非手术笼伴侣中可能发生包括学习和记忆在内的复杂行为障碍。需要更多的研究来确定这种现象是否存在于较大的动物和人类中。