Ross' team -- which includes Research Assistant Professor Giuseppe Coppotelli, biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences graduate student Lauren Gaspar, and Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program graduate student Sydney Bartman -- exposed young and old mice to varying levels of microplastics in drinking water over the course of three weeks. They found that microplastic exposure induces both behavioral changes and alterations in immune markers in liver and brain tissues. The study mice began to move and behave peculiarly, exhibiting behaviors akin to dementia in humans. The results were even more profound in older animals.