Toxoplasmosis is caused by Toxoplasma gondii that affects almost all warm-blooded animals. In Brazil, there is high rates of T. gondii infection in humans and the latent infection has been related to a series of sensory/neurological conditions. The present study evaluated the relation between seropositivity to T. gondii and behavioral performance of psychomotor and attentional tasks in asymptomatic young adults. Three computerized behavioral tests, Simple Reaction Time Task (SRTT), Spatial Cueing Task (SCT), and Attentional Load Task (ALT) were performed to evaluate their cognitive/psychomotor performance. The SRTT results suggest a significant increase in reaction time performance associated with T. gondii seropositivity and support the association of asymptomatic infection with a decrease in psychomotor performance. In general, the performance of the seronegative (n = 30) and the seropositive (n = 30) groups did not differ qualitatively in SCT, but reaction times were systematically slower in the positive group compared to the negative one. In ALT, both groups did not differ significantly in their selection of relevant information under high load conditions. However, it was possible to confirm a higher influence of flanker letter compatibility when evaluating the performance of the seropositive group under low load conditions, after post hoc analysis. Overall, these results suggest that young male adults presenting latent T. gondii infection may present significant impairment of the motor response time to a simple visual stimulus, as well as attentional selection on perceptual low load demand, but do not present a significant impact on bottom-up allocation of visual attention and high load attention selection.
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