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Link between inflammation and mental sluggishness shown in new study
An estimated 12M UK citizens have a chronic medical condition, and many of them report severe mental fatigue that they characterize as ‘sluggishness’ or ‘brain fog’. This condition is often as debilitating as the disease itself.
A team in the University’s Centre for Human Brain Health investigated the link between this mental fog and inflammation – the body’s response to illness. In a study published in Neuroimage[$], they show that inflammation appears to have a particular negative impact on the brain’s readiness to reach and maintain an alert state.
Dr Ali Mazaheri and Professor Jane Raymond of the University’s Centre for Human Brain Health, are the senior authors of the study. Dr Mazaheri says: “Scientists have long suspected a link between inflammation and cognition, but it is very difficult to be clear about the cause and effect. For example, people living with a medical condition or being very overweight might complain of cognitive impairment, but it’s hard to tell if that’s due to the inflammation associated with these conditions or if there are other reasons.”
“Our research has identified a specific critical process within the brain that is clearly affected when inflammation is present.”
The study focussed specifically on an area of the brain which is responsible for visual attention. A group of 20 young male volunteers took part and received a salmonella typhoid vaccine that causes temporary inflammation but has few other side effects. They were tested for cognitive responses to simple images on a computer screen a few hours after the injection so that their ability to control attention could be measured. Brain activity was measured while they performed the attention tests.
On a different day, either before or after, they received an injection with water (a placebo) and did the same attention tests. On each test day they were unaware of which injection they had received. Their inflammation state was measured by analysing blood taken on each day.
The tests used in the study assessed three separate attention processes, each involving distinct parts of the brain. These processes are: “alerting” which involves reaching and maintaining an alert state; “orienting” which involves selecting and prioritising useful sensory information; and “executive control” used to resolving what to pay attention to when available information is conflicting.
The results showed that inflammation specifically affected brain activity related to staying alert, while the other attention processes appeared unaffected by inflammation.
Journal Reference:
Leonie JT. Balter, Jos A. Bosch, Sarah Aldred, Mark T. Drayson, Jet JCS. Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Suzanne Higgs, Jane E. Raymond, Ali Mazaheri. Selective effects of acute low-grade inflammation on human visual attention[$]. NeuroImage, 2019; 202: 116098 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116098
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday November 22 2019, @02:16PM (4 children)
A major confound of studying something like "mental slugishness" is getting unbiased data. Self-reporting is going to be seriously skewed based on personality, varying from those who don't care what you think to the Munchausen prone who will tell you whatever gets them more attention to the prideful "nothing is wrong with my mind" crowd. Any quantifiable testing for mental speed is going to need baselining (more than a single day's sample, if you want a reliable baseline), and multiple response measures - if you're going to have any hope of getting data that's not skewed by factors outside the study, including cooperativeness of the subjects.
The markers of inflammation are pretty easy to quantify via bloodwork, but far more often will attempt to be judged by similarly biased self-reporting of "how are you feeling?"
Then we come to: who is paying for all this, and why? If there's not a pill to sell at the end of the day, there's probably not enough money in today's funding climate to get proper studies done, and if there is - how can you really trust the study when the results are so easily skewed?
Having said all that: definitely, have noticed in my own personal life - the world "moves faster," and is more annoying and confusing than normal when the joints are more painful than normal. And, that's another thing that's hard to judge: when you're getting more stupid than normal - are you really an accurate judge of your own mental state?
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(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday November 22 2019, @04:15PM
One form of 'skewed', but I would (charitably) call it fake news . . .
Get at least one or a few 'experts' who are (paided) contrary to the result.
Then: Teach The Controversy! Make the news coverage be that this study's results are controversial! Plant seeds of doubt.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by sjames on Friday November 22 2019, @04:44PM (2 children)
The study in question took place in the UK, where they have socialized healthcare. The subjects of the testing were evaluated for sluggishness rather than self-reporting and their blood was tested for markers of inflammation. All that is in TFA.
Since the subjects received a vaccination known to cause short term inflammation (or saline), they were each compared to themselves.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday November 22 2019, @07:00PM (1 child)
Vaccines cause mental sluggishness - proven in unbiased study!!! You said it, not me.
Socialized healthcare is a little bit of an antidote to big pharma bias, but dig down in the article - were there really no drug companies behind the study? Hint, you're going to have to look at the names of the researchers and check their affiliations outside this particular study, "pocket" researchers are all too common, especially in countries with socialized healthcare which paints their results with the brush of unbiased appearances.
Having said all that, I do not doubt the results of this study, and will applaud it doubly if they propose effective treatments which do not generate massive revenue for someone, somewhere.
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(Score: 4, Informative) by sjames on Friday November 22 2019, @09:15PM
A particular vaccine causes sluggishness detectable in a sufficiently sensitive test for up to 24 hours.