lighting a candle indoors could influence your cognitive abilities.
Research indicates that indoor air pollution due to its smoke, combined with inadequate ventilation, can impair our concentration abilities.
This is based on a study involving 26 individuals who spent one hour in a room containing a lit, extinguished candle, followed by another session where they stayed in the same room but breathed clean air on a separate occasion.
Participants underwent examinations prior to and following their entry.
After breathing in candle smoke for four hours, individuals performed poorer when they had to concentrate on an image and block out distractions.
Dr. Thomas Faherty, who co-authored the study from the University of Birmingham The research article stated: “Exposure to air pollution, even for brief periods, could lead to adverse impacts on cognitive functions crucial for everyday tasks.”
'It clearly demonstrates the significance of airing a room, such as after extinguishing the candles on a birthday cake.'
The research, featured in the journal Nature Communications, assessed individuals' 'selective attention,' which refers to their capacity to concentrate on a face while disregarding interruptions.
After being exposed to polluted air, their performance notably declined when they had to quickly press buttons in reaction to images of 120 faces, whereas this was not observed following exposure to clean air.
While breathing in indoor pollutants, the participants performed poorer when they had to determine if images depicted individuals as either happy or scared.
The effects on the brain could be caused by pollution triggering inflammation in the body, which affects the brain, say experts.
Pollutant particles can similarly infiltrate the circulatory system via the respiratory tract and breach the protective barrier around the brain.
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