Researchers examine inflammation could impact level of motivation

PanARMENIAN.Net - Researchers from Emory University examine new evidence about how low-grade inflammation could impact a person's level of motivation. This may also have implications for the treatment of some cases of depression, Medical News Today reports.

The idea that depression or symptoms of depression are linked to inflammation is not a new one.

A study from 2017, for instance, which measured immune response markers in the brains of 14 people with moderate or severe depression, suggested that individuals with suicidal thoughts also had clear signs of brain inflammation.

New research conducted by investigators at Emory University, in Atlanta, GA, now puts forward the idea that low-grade inflammation in the body may lead to a lack of motivation by curtailing dopamine, a hormone and neurotransmitter that plays an important role in the brain's reward circuit, which drives motivation-related behaviors.

In their study paper — featured in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences — the researchers suggest that inflammatory mechanisms prompt the release of less dopamine as a way of getting the brain to save energy and focus it toward healing the wound or infection that set off the inflammation.

"When your body is fighting an infection or healing a wound, your brain needs a mechanism to recalibrate your motivation to do other things, so you don't use up too much of your energy," said study co-author Michael Treadway, Ph.D.

"We now have strong evidence suggesting that the immune system disrupts the dopamine system to help the brain perform this recalibration," says Treadway, who is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Emory.

In their paper, the researchers review the evidence suggesting a direct link between inflammation and a lack of motivation, and they also propose a computational method of assessing the impact of chronic, low-grade inflammation on the amount of energy that the brain expends on behaviors driven by self-motivation.