Natural Sciences Active Updated Aug 19, 2026
Attention itself can dial down an immune response
A Bar-Ilan University team found that simply directing a person's attention to a skin allergy reaction changed its physical severity, the first demonstrated causal link between attention and immune regulation in a living body. The stakes are whether this points to a broader, nudgeable component of inflammation beyond the automatic response medicine has long assumed it to be.
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Aug 19, 2026 Latest
Bar-Ilan University neuroscientist Liron Rozenkrantz and colleagues found that when 37 healthy volunteers focused attention on a histamine skin-prick allergy reaction rather than watching distracting videos, the resulting wheal came out smaller on average, 3.5 millimeters versus 5.0 millimeters, which the team called the first causal evidence linking attention to immune regulation in a living body, published in Nature Human Behaviour.
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