Virtual interactions, real immune response

We know that there are numerous interactions between the brain and the immune system. This Nature Neuroscience paper, "Neural anticipation of virtual infection triggers an immune response" (link) by a team led by Camilla Jandus and Andrea Serino from the University of Lausanne and the University of Geneva reports on clever experiments where participants were given virtual reality (VR) headsets to see human avatars exhibiting symptoms of illness (rash, cough, ...). By measuring brain responses with fMRI and analyzing blood samples, they were able to show that the brain anticipates a possible infection and activates innate immune cells. The immune activity in participants approached by seemingly sick avatars was markedly different from controls, who were presented with healthy-looking avatars. And it was similar to the immune activity of participants who had just received an influenza vaccine without avatar interactions. This all suggests that the brain tries to predict what might happen and selects the appropriate immune response.

The idea of boosting vaccine efficacy (if vaccines are still legal) by using a VR experience of being in close proximity to a sick avatar is super intriguing.

A few years ago, science writer Ed Yong wrote in The Atlantic that "Immunology is where intuition goes to die" (link). But perhaps it is where intuition lives.