Using an interleukin-6 challenge to evaluate neuropsychological performance in chronic fatigue syndrome.
Arnold, M C, Papanicolaou, D A, O'Grady, J A et al.·Psychological medicine·2002
Researchers gave ME/CFS patients and healthy people a substance called interleukin-6 to temporarily trigger flu-like symptoms. They then tested how well both groups could think and remember during this induced illness. ME/CFS patients reported more overall sickness symptoms, but surprisingly, both groups performed equally well on memory and thinking tests, suggesting that the temporary immune activation didn't impair cognitive abilities in either group.