Voluntary attention regulates acute immune responses in humans | Nature Human Behaviour
Mizrachi et al. show that directing attention to bodily sensations, rather than away, promotes more regulated acute inflammatory responses in healthy volunteers, revealing sensory and vagal pathways linking mind and immune function.
Main Attention is a core cognitive mechanism that prioritizes sensory information for neural processing. It not only shapes neural activity but also modulates the perceived intensity of sensory events, including those arising from the body, such as pain and itch1,2,3. These sensory signals provide critical information for the regulation of immune responses. In line with this idea, rodent studies show that disrupting neural pathways conveying nociceptive signals leads to immune dysregulation4,5. In humans, attending away from pain or itch reduces perceived unpleasantness6,7, yet this…
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