Association Between Interleukin-6 and Striatal Prediction-Error Signals Following Acute Stress in Healthy Female Participants

Abstract Background Stress is widely known to alter behavioral responses to rewards and punishments. It is believed that stress may precipitate these changes through modulation of corticostriatal circuitry involved in reinforcement learning and motivation, although the intervening mechanisms remain...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biological psychiatry (1969) 2017-10, Vol.82 (8), p.570-577
Main Authors: Treadway, Michael T, Admon, Roee, Arulpragasam, Amanda R, Mehta, Malavika, Douglas, Samuel, Vitaliano, Gordana, Olson, David P, Cooper, Jessica A, Pizzagalli, Diego A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis of Variance
Corpus Striatum - diagnostic imaging
Corpus Striatum - pathology
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Healthy Volunteers
Humans
Hydrocortisone - metabolism
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Inflammation
Interleukin-6
Interleukin-6 - blood
Interleukin-6 - metabolism
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Models, Statistical
Oxygen - blood
Psychiatry
Regression Analysis
Reinforcement learning
Reinforcement, Psychology
Reward prediction error
Saliva - metabolism
Stress
Stress, Psychological - blood
Stress, Psychological - diagnostic imaging
Stress, Psychological - pathology
Stress, Psychological - physiopathology
Time Factors
Ventral striatum
Visual Analog Scale
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Summary:Abstract Background Stress is widely known to alter behavioral responses to rewards and punishments. It is believed that stress may precipitate these changes through modulation of corticostriatal circuitry involved in reinforcement learning and motivation, although the intervening mechanisms remain unclear. One candidate is inflammation, which can rapidly increase following stress and can disrupt dopamine-dependent reward pathways. Methods Here, in a sample of 88 healthy female participants, we first assessed the effect of an acute laboratory stress paradigm on levels of plasma interleukin-6 (IL-6), a cytokine known to be both responsive to stress and elevated in depression. In a second laboratory session, we examined the effects of a second laboratory stress paradigm on reward prediction error (RPE) signaling in the ventral striatum. Results We show that individual differences in stress-induced increases in IL-6 (session 1) were associated with decreased ventral striatal RPE signaling during reinforcement learning (session 2), though there was no main effect of stress on RPE. Furthermore, changes in IL-6 following stress predicted intraindividual variability in perceived stress during a 4-month follow-up period. Conclusions Taken together, these data identify a novel link between IL-6 and striatal RPEs during reinforcement learning in the context of acute psychological stress, as well as future appraisal of stressful life events.
ISSN:0006-3223
1873-2402
DOI:10.1016/j.biopsych.2017.02.1183