BACKGROUND Several studies have indicated that mild systemic inflammation is associated with the risk of cognitive impairment. However, not every cognitive domain has been evaluated to have a correlation with peripheral inflammation in healthy individuals. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the association between C-reactive protein (CRP) as a marker of peripheral inflammation with various domains of cognition in healthy adults. METHOD This study consisted of 216 healthy native German adults (138 males and 78 females, mean age: 39.12 ± 20.19 years) from "Leipzig Study for Mind-Body-Emotion Interactions" (LEMON) database. After the initial assessment and conducting the cognitive battery, a blood sample was collected and CRP level was evaluated. Patients were categorized into three groups based on their CRP level. Subsequently, demographic and cognitive features were compared across three groups and to confirm the association between CRP level and cognitive performance, general linear models (GLM) were applied. RESULTS All California Verbal Learning Task (CVLT)-evaluated aspects of memory performance were inversely associated with CRP level, some of which remained significant after the adjustment for age, gender, education, smoking status and body mass index. Moreover, GLM analysis indicated that mean reaction time of the Test of Attentional Performance-Alertness (TAP-A) test (with and without signal) was also significantly associated with CRP level. CONCLUSION The current study indicated that healthy subjects with higher levels of CRP exhibit poorer performance in verbal learning memory and general wakefulness domains of cognition.

中文翻译：

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健康成人全身炎症与认知能力之间的关联

背景几项研究表明，轻度全身炎症与认知障碍的风险相关。然而，并非每个认知领域都被评估为与健康个体的外周炎症相关。因此，我们旨在研究作为外周炎症标志物的 C 反应蛋白 (CRP) 与健康成人的各种认知领域之间的关联。方法 本研究由来自“莱比锡身心情感相互作用研究”（LEMON）数据库的 216 名健康的德国本土成年人（138 名男性和 78 名女性，平均年龄：39.12 ± 20.19 岁）组成。在初步评估和进行认知电池后，收集血液样本并评估 CRP 水平。患者根据其 CRP 水平分为三组。随后，比较三组的人口统计学和认知特征，并应用一般线性模型 (GLM) 来确认 CRP 水平与认知表现之间的关联。结果 所有加州语言学习任务 (CVLT) 评估的记忆表现方面都与 CRP 水平呈负相关，其中一些在调整年龄、性别、教育、吸烟状况和体重指数后仍然显着。此外，GLM 分析表明注意力表现-警觉性测试 (TAP-A) 测试（有和无信号）的平均反应时间也与 CRP 水平显着相关。结论 目前的研究表明，CRP 水平较高的健康受试者在语言学习记忆和一般清醒认知领域表现较差。