Study Suggests Focusing on Inflammation May Help the Brain Regulate the Immune Response

Voluntary attention regulates acute immune responses in humans

Attention is a central mechanism for prioritizing and shaping sensory information. For example, directing attention away from injury reduces perceived pain. Whether such cognitive modulation extends to downstream biological processes has remained unknown. Here, across three pre-registered within-subjects experiments using acute skin inflammation as a model system, we show that directing attention towards bodily sensations, compared to attentiona…

Want to Calm Inflammation? A New Study Says a Common Instinct May Backfire

New research found that the brain appears to rely on two ways to effectively quiet inflammation, rebuking common assumptions.

Column | The surprising science of how focusing your attention may fight inflammation

Researchers found that people who distracted themselves from an itch actually had worse inflammation than those who didn’t.