Brain areas that help to monitor the envelope of space close to a person help to fire up immune cells when infection threatens. Credit: Zephyr/Science Photo Library
The brain activates front-line immune cells in response to the mere sight of a sick person, mimicking the body’s response to an actual infection, a study shows1.
The results required the use of brain scans and blood tests, as well as less conventional technology: gaming kit. Study volunteers donned virtual reality (VR) headsets to view human avatars with rashes, coughs or other symptoms of illness — avoiding the need to expose volunteers to pathogens.
The results illustrate the power of the brain “to predict what is going on [and] to select the proper response”, says study co-author Andrea Serino, a neuroscientist at the University Hospital of Lausanne, Switzerland.
The study was published 28 July in Nature Neuroscience.
Getting ahead
The immune system reacts promptly to infections, but it can’t always move fast enough to prevent serious illness. That means it would be useful for the body to realize that an infection is possible and mount a pre-emptive response.
To study humans’ ability to anticipate a pathogen attack, Serino and his colleagues outfitted healthy volunteers with Google’s Oculus Rift headsets and showed them avatars that approached closer and closer, although the avatars never ‘touched’ the participants. Some avatars showed signs of having an infectious illness; others were controls that looked healthy.
How the brain spies on the gut: with help from newfound immune cells
Another group of volunteers did not see the avatars but received an influenza vaccination, representing exposure to an actual pathogen.
