Full text of the research article: <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0300483X16303043?via%3Dihub" rel="nofollow">http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0300483X16...</a><p>IANAMD, IANAB, so I have to use the <a href="https://xkcd.com/793/" rel="nofollow">https://xkcd.com/793/</a> approach. [Disclaimer: I don't believe in this result.]<p>They have 10 mice in each group and 10 in the control group. It looks small, but the differences are big so I guess the problem is not here.<p>In 4 out of the 9 test the 200ug mice get worse results. In the last test the 800ug mice get worse results but it is not very clear and I think it's not conclusive.<p>My problem with this study is that the differences are too big. It's a weird objection, but when the result is small it's easy to imagine why it wasn't discovered before. Also, it's weird than the group with the smaller dose get the problems.<p>For example in the "total distance" in the "open field" test they get 1300+-200cm for the 200ug group, and all the other group get something like 2300+-300cm. It's almost the double!<p>Since it's a big difference in the test, this should be easy to reproduce and confirm the result. If two or more independent laboratory confirm the study it's more difficult to believe they had some unlooked problem.<p>And it would be good to add more intermediate groups like 50ug, 100ug, 150ug, 200ug, 250ug, 300ug, ... to get a smooth curve with a minimal distance somewhere near 200ug. Assuming there is no Ballmer peak, the curve will be smooth and the result will be easy to reproduce.<p>My unsupported guess is that they had a problem in the 200ug cage but they didn't realize. Is it possible an infection? Can they put next time all the mice in a single cage and mark them to know which one get each dose?<p>My other unsupported guess is that they botched a dilution in the 200ug group and they overdosed this mice with aluminum. They get almost 100 times more aluminum in the brain of the 200ug group than in all the other groups including the control. 100 times is too much and I suspect it was an error in the injections. Are the symptoms compatible with an aluminum overdose?