The article details an experiment demonstrating that the brain anticipates virtual infection threats, triggering a measurable immune response before actual physical contact with a pathogen occurs. Researchers used virtual reality (VR) to expose participants to avatars displaying signs of infection, measuring neural activity through EEG and fMRI, and monitoring changes in innate lymphoid cells (ILCs). The results show that the peripersonal space (PPS) system and the salience network detect these potential threats, leading to ILC activation similar to that caused by a flu vaccine. This neuro-immune cross-talk is connected to the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis and is mediated by a complex, nonlinear relationship involving hormones and other signaling factors, suggesting an integrated, proactive defense mechanism in humans against

References:

• Trabanelli S, Akselrod M, Fellrath J, et al. Neural anticipation of virtual infection triggers an immune response[J]. Nature neuroscience, 2025: 1-10.