US EditionStudy: Brain Reward Training May Boost Vaccine Antibody Response
A randomized trial with 85 participants showed that activating the brain's reward area increased hepatitis B vaccine antibody levels, linking positive expectations to immune response.
- On January 19, researchers at Tel Aviv University published in Nature Medicine a randomized controlled trial testing whether training to upregulate the mesolimbic pathway and VTA alters immune responses to a hepatitis B vaccine.
- Eighty-Five participants were divided into three groups, including neurofeedback to the mesolimbic pathway, non-reward regions, or no training, followed by HBV vaccination with blood sampled before and up to four weeks after.
- Despite group averages showing no clear effect, participants who succeeded in activating the ventral tegmental area produced significantly higher HBV-specific antibody levels, linked to positive expectations.
- The study's authors cautioned that the trial measured only antibody levels and was not designed to assess clinical vaccine efficacy, urging larger trials to explore applications in cancer immunotherapy and chronic inflammation.
- The findings position the work as a potential mechanism for placebo-like effects, suggesting brain–immune pathways may explain the placebo effect and enable noninvasive immunity approaches.
19 Articles
19 Articles
der Standard AT
der Standard DEPeople who imagine positive experiences produced more antibodies in tests. This indicates the clinical potential of mental self-influencing
People with an active reward system develop stronger immune responses to vaccinations. To the conclusion comes an investigation from Israel. Does this have an evolutionary cause?
Discoveries suggest a possible relationship between the activity of specific brain pathways and the immune system, which may be useful for identifying targets associated with placebo in humans.
Upregulation of reward mesolimbic activity and immune response to vaccination: a randomized controlled trial - Nature Medicine
Growing evidence points to a close neurophysiological link between brain and body. Recent rodent studies have shown that the dopaminergic mesolimbic pathway, which underlies expectations of positive outcomes, also modulates immune function. However, it remains unknown whether a similar brain-immune link exists in humans and whether it involves conscious positive expectations. In a preregistered, double-blind randomized controlled trial, we used …
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