A team of environmental biologists at the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, working with one colleague from Duke University, and another from National University of Singapore, has found that it takes microplastics consumed by mice just a few hours to make their way to their brains.

In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the group describes experiments they conducted with lab mice consuming water tainted with different sized microplastics, and what they learned by doing so.

The research team sought to learn more about the medical impact of a mammal consuming different sizes of microplastics. The experiments consisted of feeding test mice water with different sized bits of fluorescent plastic in it, from micro to nano. They then tracked the progress of the plastic bits to see where they wound up in the bodies of the mice.