FriSem

Anna Xu, PhD Student, Department of Psychology, Stanford University

2021 Fall First-Year Project Neuroscience Student

Title: The Relationship Between Serum Cytokine Levels and Cognition in Psychosis

Abstract: The immune system is a promising avenue of biomarker development research for neurocognitive impairments associated with psychosis. However, which cytokines are associated with specifically which cognitive impairment in psychotic disorders is unclear. To address this gap, this pre-registered study assessed the relationship between specific cognitive impairments measured from a computerized cognitive battery and serum levels of four cytokines -- interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, IL-1β, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α -- from 453 African American participants (192 patients with various psychotic disorders, 261 non-psychotic controls). Exploratory factor analysis found 7 factors summarizing cognitive performance: executive function reaction time, general verbal memory, verbal working memory, recognition reaction time, recognition ability, spatial working memory, and attention. However, in contrast to previous work, we did not find evidence for significant elevation of cytokine levels in patients or a significant relationship between serum cytokine levels and any of these 7 cognitive factors. Several features, such as patient medication status, non-exclusion of psychiatric diagnoses in our control group, and the potential lack of sensitivity in our immune measure could have contributed to these results.

You can find this information on the talk here.