Behavioral impact of environmental contaminants: neurotoxicity and endocrine disruption

The growing diversity of environmental contaminants, such as heavy metals, agrochemicals, organic pollutants, microplastics, and pharmaceutical residues, poses a significant threat to organisms across the biosphere. Contaminants affect both aquatic and terrestrial environments, generating complex interactions and neurotoxic effects on the central and peripheral nervous systems. These impacts can lead to motor and non-motor behavioral changes, including deficits in learning and memory processes, changes in social interaction, and cognitive disorders such as anxiety and depression. Additionally, the possibility of additive and synergistic effects between different contaminants complicates our understanding of how these compounds collectively influence behavior.

Similarly, many of these contaminants act as endocrine disruptors, interfering with hormone regulation and homeostatic systems that control organisms' responses to environmental changes. Endocrine disruption can profoundly affect brain circuits and behavior, increasing the risk of stress-related behaviors, anxiety, aggression, cognitive decline, and neurodegenerative conditions, with sex-specific differences.

The behavioral impact of environmental contaminants depend on factors such as the duration and timing of exposure. For instance, exposure during critical periods of brain development can lead to developmental disorders and may affect the onset of puberty. Furthermore, many pollutants have been shown to affect males and females differently, and transgenerational and epigenetic effects must also be considered, adding another layer of complexity to this scenario.

Understanding how these contaminants affect behavior is crucial for biodiversity conservation and public health. Although the exact cellular and molecular mechanisms remain largely unknown, recent research suggests that contaminants influence brain and behavior through processes such as oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and endocrine disruption. Strict regulatory policies are essential to control and reduce the release of contaminants into the environment, protecting ecosystems, and limiting bioaccumulation of toxic substances that harm human health.

This Research Topic will explore the behavioral effects of environmental contaminants on living organisms. The collection will welcome studies addressing biochemical and physiological changes associated with ecotoxicological factors in neurobehavior, as well as original articles focused on behavioral pattern alterations related to environmental contaminants. Studies using conventional animal models such as fish and rodents are welcome, but region-specific models are also encouraged.

Themes to be Addressed:

• Neurotoxic effects of heavy metals.
• Endocrine disruption caused by agrochemicals, namely, how pesticides and herbicides interfere with hormone regulation and affect behavior.
• The neurobehavioral effects of microplastics in aquatic and terrestrial organisms.
• The impact of organic pollutants such as PCBs and dioxins on cognitive functions and behavior.
• Pharmaceutical residues in water bodies and their effects on the behavior of aquatic organisms.
• Additive and synergistic effects of multiple environmental contaminants on behavior.
• Learning and memory processes: for example, how exposure to neurotoxins like lead and mercury impairs spatial memory and learning tasks in animal models.
• Behavioral ecotoxicology, focusing on wildlife and ecosystem behavior.
• Changes in social interactions and group dynamics in species exposed to a range of different pollutants.
• Molecular mechanisms of neurotoxicity and their impact on sex hormone production and brain circuits.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review

Keywords: cognitive health, neuroendocrine disruption, behavioral impact, contaminants, neurobehavioral health, environmental estrogens, brain development, learning, memory, neurotoxicity

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.