Most of us experience days when we lack get up and go. This mopey feeling can hit us at any time. However, if you suffer from chronic, low-grade inflammation it could be causing your lack of motivation. (1)

Chronic Inflammation And Motivation

Trends in Cognitive Sciences published a study by a group of scientists who found the brain’s dopamine system is directly affected by chronic, low-grade inflammation. The dopamine system is responsible for motivation. According to their paper, the tie between dopamine, effort, and the inflammatory response is part of the healing process. (1)

“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,” says corresponding author Michael Treadway, an associate professor in Emory’s Department of Psychology. “We now have strong evidence suggesting that the immune system disrupts the dopamine system to help the brain perform this recalibration.” (1)

Motivation And Mental Illness

Treadway studies the relationship between motivation and mental illness. His co-author is Andrew Miller, William P. Timmie Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in Emory’s School of Medicine and the Winship Cancer Institute. He is considered a leader in this field, exploring the development of immunotherapeutic strategies as a potential treatment of psychiatric disorders. (1)

“If our theory is correct, then it could have a tremendous impact on treating cases of depression and other behavioral disorders that may be driven by inflammation,” Miller says. “It would open up opportunities for the development of therapies that target energy utilization by immune cells, which would be something completely new in our field.” (1)

Effects Of Chronic Inflammation

Scientists can now use the methodology to measure the effects of chronic inflammation on energy availability in hand with effort-based decision-making. It could explain the role inflammation plays in motivational impairments. This could include those with depression, schizophrenia, and other medical disorders. (1)

The computational model was led by co-author Jessica Cooper, a post-doctoral fellow in Treadway’s lab. Past studies did find that signaling molecules in our immune system known as inflammatory cytokines do affect the mesolimbic dopamine system. Another study shows how immune cells can experience shifts in their metabolic states that differ from other cells. (1)

Low-grade Chromic Inflammation

These findings formed the base for the new study. They believe this mechanism was designed to regulate energy use in a less friendly environment. Pathogens and predators were the cause of stress for our ancestors. Today we experience low-grade inflammation due to things such as chronic stress, aging, and obesity. Our bodies still use the same mechanisms to conserve energy for the immune system. However, they are now potentially “maladaptive” according to the authors of the new study. (1)

Reduced Levels Of Dopamine

Together the studies point to an association between some cases of mental disorders and an elevated immune system, reduced levels of dopamine and motivation. (1)

“We’re not proposing that inflammation causes these disorders,” Treadway says. “The idea is that a subset of people with these disorders may have a particular sensitivity to the effects of the immune system and this sensitivity could contribute to the motivational impairments they are experiencing.” (1)

The group will now undergo clinical trials on depression to test their computational method. (1)