IL6 and infection: Furthermore, deviant brain development and subsequent cognitive alterations in adulthood may be mediated by cytokines, especially by IL-6 induction during infection.105 Activation of the IL-6/Nox2 pathway and consequent increase in superoxide production in the brain can also induce a loss of parvalbumin-containing interneurons in adulthood.106 The increased glutamate levels observed with MRS in the ARMS and early FEP period may thus result from activated microglial cells rather than from NMDAr hypofunction.