Imagine wearing a virtual reality headset and is shown to the incarnation of human-covered faces, some of which appear ill with an infection.
Can you expect your immune system to kick into action?
About 250 people clearly did so much that during a study conducted by scientists at the University of Lazenn and Geneva in Switzerland.
And this seems real to their immune system for a mere vision of an infection.
Artificial images were shown to the participants – avatar – some of which had rashes, others had cough. Some looked healthy.
Keep in mind, the participants were not presented Real Sick people (a person in the same room as subject), or even images of sick people, but Unrealistic Images.
And his immune systems have still reacted.
“We can conclude that the brain has the ability to separate the virtual infectious patterns, active and connect this activation to a downstream response, as a result in systemic immunity,” the co-writer of the study paper and the University of Geneva University, the University of Geneva wrote in an email in an email.
Jandas and colleague Andrea Serino published their paper in the journal today Nature neurology,
When an avatar makes you feel ill
The researcher monitored the brain activity of the participants, while they looked at the avatars. This allowed them to track reactions to visuals.
For example, he saw that the participants reacted when a sick -looking avatar went closer to him in virtual reality. Jandus and Serino did this to do that the brain looked on the alarm.
Researchers examined the reactions with a “control group” of avatars that Ether stood away when he appeared to contact a participant or looked healthy. He said that it indicates how sensitive the immune system is.
He took blood samples from the participants who were encountered by sick -looking avatars, and those samples showed an increased activity of a type of immune cell, called congenital lymphoid cell (ILCs).
Since ILCs play an important role in the early stages of an immune response to infection (they respond to early signs from damaged or infected cells), the results of the blood suggest that the brain reaction to sick -looking avatars gave rise to a immune response. And before a pathogen, everything that had actually entered the body.
How VR findings can be used in reality
The team is considering various applications for their research, which includes using VR stimuli to promote standard vaccinations, module immunity in people with autoimmune or inflammatory diseases as a non-dominant approach to teat people with module immunity, or allergies.
“This represents a medical opportunity,” said Jandas. “We are testing this idea in allergies, seeking bees and wasp as an allergy, causing a doubt of virtual bee or wasp sting can cause disencisitization in the allergy patient.”
Although there is no practical evidence yet what is the risk of VR stimuli, which is leading to reduce the immune system, Jandus said “will be” tolerance ‘, but a kind of’ tolerance ‘. “
Edited by: Matthew Ward Agiyu S
