Inuit communities in Northern Quebec (Canada) are exposed to environmental contaminants, particularly to mercury, lead and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Previous studies reported adverse associations between these neurotoxicants and memory performance. Here we aimed to determine the associations of pre- and postnatal exposures to mercury, lead and PCB-153 on spatial navigation memory in 212 Inuit adolescents (mean age = 18.5 years) using a computer task which requires learning the location of a hidden platform based on allocentric spatial representation. Contaminant concentrations were measured in cord blood at birth and blood samples at 11 years of age and at time of testing. Multivariate regression models showed that adolescent mercury and prenatal PCB-153 exposures were associated with poorer spatial learning, whereas current exposure to PCB-153 was associated with altered spatial memory retrieval at the probe test trial. These findings suggest that contaminants might be linked to different aspects of spatial navigation processing at different stages.

中文翻译：

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青春期后期环境污染物的发育暴露与​​空间导航之间的关联

魁北克省北部（加拿大）的因纽特人社区暴露于环境污染物中，特别是汞、铅和多氯联苯 (PCB)。先前的研究报告了这些神经毒物与记忆表现之间的不利关联。在这里，我们的目的是使用一项计算机任务来确定 212 名因纽特青少年（平均年龄 = 18.5 岁）出生前和产后接触汞、铅和 PCB-153 对空间导航记忆的关联，该任务需要学习基于隐藏平台的位置关于异中心空间表征。对出生时的脐带血、11 岁时和测试时的血液样本中的污染物浓度进行了测量。多变量回归模型显示，青少年汞和产前 PCB-153 暴露与较差的空间学习能力相关，而当前暴露于 PCB-153 则与探针测试试验中的空间记忆检索改变相关。这些发现表明污染物可能与不同阶段的空间导航处理的不同方面有关。