Selective effects of acute low-grade inflammation on human visual attention.

Illness is often accompanied by perceived cognitive sluggishness, a symptom that may stem from immune system activation. The current study used electroencephalography (EEG) to assess how inflammation affected three different distinct attentional processes: alerting, orienting and executive control. In a double-blinded placebo-controlled within-subjects design (20 healthy males, mean age = 24.5, SD = 3.4), Salmonella typhoid vaccination (0.025 mg; Typhim Vi, Sanofi Pasteur) was used to induce transient mild inflammation, while a saline injection served as a placebo-control. Participants completed the Attention Network Test with concurrent EEG recorded 6 h post-injection. Analyses focused on behavioral task performance and on modulation of oscillatory EEG activity in the alpha band (9-12 Hz) for alerting as well as orienting attention and frontal theta band (4-8 Hz) for executive control. Vaccination induced mild systemic inflammation, as assessed by interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels. While no behavioral task performance differences between the inflammation and placebo condition were evident, inflammation caused significant alterations to task-related brain activity. Specifically, inflammation produced greater cue-induced suppression of alpha power in the alerting aspect of attention and individual variation in the inflammatory response was significantly correlated with the degree of alpha power suppression. Notably, inflammation did not affect orienting (i.e., alpha lateralization) or executive control (i.e., frontal theta activity). These results reveal a unique neurophysiological sensitivity to acute mild inflammation of the neural network that underpins attentional alerting functions. Observed in the absence of performance decrements, these novel findings suggest that acute inflammation requires individuals to exert greater cognitive effort when preparing for a task in order to maintain adequate behavioral performance.

Lipopolysaccharide-induced changes in the kynurenine pathway and symptoms of sickness behavior in humans.

Metabolites of the kynurenine pathway are hypothesized to be implicated in inflammation-associated depression, but there is a lack of experimental studies in humans assessing the kinetics of kynurenine metabolites in relation to experimentally-induced sickness. The aim of the present study was to assess changes in the kynurenine pathway and to explore its relation to symptoms of sickness behavior during an acute experimental immune challenge. This double-blind placebo-controlled randomized cross-over study included 22 healthy human participants (n = 21 both sessions, Mage = 23.4, SD = 3.6, nine women) who received an intravenous injection of 2.0 ng/kg lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and saline (placebo) on two different occasions in a randomized order. Blood samples (0 h, 1 h, 1.5 h, 2 h, 3 h, 4 h, 5 h, 7 h post-injection) were analyzed for kynurenine metabolites and inflammatory cytokines. The intensity of symptoms of sickness behavior was assessed using the 10-item Sickness Questionnaire at 0 h, 1.5 h, 3 h, 5 h, and 7 h post-injection. LPS induced significantly lower concentrations of plasma tryptophan (at 2 h, 4 h, 5 h, and 7 h post-injection), kynurenine (at 2 h, 3 h, 4 h, and 5 h post-injection), nicotinamide (at 4 h, 5 h, and 7 h post-injection), and higher levels for quinolinic acid at 5 h post-injection as compared to placebo. LPS did not affect kynurenic acid, 3-hydroxykynurenine, and picolinic acid. The development of the sickness symptoms was largely similar across items, with the highest levels around 1.5-3 h post-injection. Changes in plasma levels of kynurenine metabolites seem to coincide rather than precede or follow changes in subjective sickness. Exploratory analyses indicate that higher Sickness Questionnaire total scores at 1.5-5 h post-injection were correlated with lower kynurenic acid and nicotinamide levels. These results lend further support for LPS-induced changes in the kynurenine pathway, but may not, as interpreted from blood levels, causally link to LPS-induced acute symptoms of sickness behavior. Future research may consider a larger sample to further scrutinize the role of the kynurenine pathway in the sickness response.

Poor sleep quality is associated with worse self-rated health in long sleep duration but not short sleep duration.

Unhealthy sleep duration, either short or long, is associated with worse health and central subjective dimensions of sleep and health such as fatigue. It has been argued that the link between sleep duration and health may depend on the quality of the slept hours, and on its functional impact (ie, fatigue). The present study therefore assessed whether the relationship between last night's sleep duration and general self-rated health (SRH) differs as a function of sleep quality, and secondly, whether current fatigue and sleep quality are factors linking sleep duration and SRH. The present cross-sectional dataset involved 1304 individuals (57% female, Mage = 28.8, range 18-79). Participants completed surveys for general SRH, previous night's sleep duration and sleep quality, and current fatigue. Results showed the expected inverted U-shaped (ie, quadratic) relation between last night's sleep duration and SRH and a linear relation between last night's sleep quality and SRH. However, long sleep duration was only associated with poorer SRH in individuals who also reported poor sleep quality. Further, the quadratic relationship between sleep duration and SRH was partially mediated by fatigue and sleep quality. The results of this multi-study analysis suggest that SRH is particularly poor in those who slept both long and with poor quality the night before, while good sleep quality may protect those with a long sleep duration from poor SRH. Thus, last night's long sleep does not seem to be associated with poor subjective health unless it is coupled with poor sleep quality. Furthermore, fatigue and sleep quality are potential pathways linking short and long sleep duration with SRH. Different dimensions of sleep interact in their association with health, and future research will benefit from an integrative approach.

Age, BMI, and inflammation: Associations with emotion recognition.

Experimental studies show that inflammation impairs the ability to interpret the mental state of another person, denoted theory of mind (ToM). The current study attempted a conceptual replication in states associated with elevated low-grade inflammation, i.e., high body weight and advanced age. Ninety young (M = 26.3 years, SD = 4.1) or older (M = 70.7 years, SD = 4.0) participants with either a normal body mass index (BMI) (M = 22.4, SD = 2.2) or high BMI (M = 33.1, SD = 3.8) completed the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) to assess emotion recognition. Plasma interleukin-6 (IL-6) level was measured to index low-grade inflammation. As anticipated, elevated IL-6 levels were found with higher BMI, although not with increased age. IL-6 was associated with poorer task performance, independent of potential demographic and health confounders (e.g., sex, education, smoking status, alcohol intake, presence of medical conditions, and medication intake). Analyses also revealed an interaction whereby young individuals with a high BMI showed worse RMET performance compared to their normal BMI counterparts, whereas the opposite pattern was found in older individuals. The present observational study replicated experimental results showing that elevated low-grade inflammation is correlated with a lower ability to infer the mental states of others. These findings suggest that also naturalistic conditions of (protracted) low-grade inflammation may alter emotion recognition.