Study helps to understand how feelings and concerns trigger illness

The workings of the human body are so curious that if you present an artificial flower to a person known to be allergic to pollen, it is possible that they will react as if the plant were real. This phenomenon was described in the scientific journal The American Journal of The Medical Sciences in 1886, more than 130 years ago.

Now, a study published in the journal Cell and carried out by scientists at the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) and other institutions helps to understand how and why this happens: the insular cortex (an area of ​​the brain that is, roughly, behind of the temporal lobe, on the side of the organ) is capable of storing a type of memory and, even without external stimuli, triggering signals for the body to present an inflammatory response.

Inflammation, it is worth remembering, is a defense mechanism, a kind of biochemical siren so that the body mobilizes defenses and fights invaders or starts repairing injuries. Classically, inflammation can be noticed by some signs: redness, swelling, high local temperature, pain and loss of function in the affected area or organ.

But this type of response is not always desired, as in the case of some inflammatory diseases that have a psychosomatic trigger, that is, they can trigger certain effects, such as intestinal cramps and unwanted trips to the bathroom, from feelings, thoughts and concerns – the person’s psychological state.

Colitis (inflammation of the large intestine), like other diseases of the digestive tract, has a strong psychosomatic component, and for this reason it was chosen by the authors of the studies, led by Asya Rolls, from the Technion, as an experimental model in mice.

“We know that many diseases linked to the digestive system are very sensitive to emotional triggers, which is why we chose colitis. We also studied peritonitis. [inflamação do peritônio, estrutura que encobre os órgãos abdominais] as a way to understand how specific this ‘immunological memory’ of the brain is”, tells the scientist to leaf.

In the end, both experimental models served to map the information path, with encoding and storage in the insular cortex. The strategy to understand how this worked was to use “molecular tags” capable of denouncing the behavior of neurons during inflammatory events triggered by the application of chemical substances.

By stimulating this same neural network, an immune response similar to the original was obtained, even without the chemical stimulus. The authors explain that, based on these findings, it is possible to expand the traditional concept of immunological memory: from a phenomenon without brain participation to one that includes these neuronal representations of inflammatory information.

“We know that many illnesses are triggered by an emotional trigger, and there is evidence of psychosomatic illnesses everywhere, but we don’t understand how they happen. For that reason, we have little skill in dealing with them. of our study opens up a new therapeutic possibility, and even a potential cure by inhibiting this activity of the insular cortex,” says Rolls to the report.

A challenge that remains is to understand the evolutionary advantage of having in us a neurological “software” that can emulate inflammatory diseases. One possibility, the authors suggest, would be the convenience of the organism anticipating a stimulus, preparing the body for what is to come, based on environmental cues, such as odors and images.

On the other hand, as we have seen, this can lead to unwanted situations, such as an allergic reaction to artificial flowers or stomach and intestinal reactions at the most inconvenient times.

The researchers’ plan now, Rolls reveals, is to better understand what makes up this neuronal memory of inflammation, what makes one memory more neurologically storable than another, and whether other areas of the brain are also involved.

“We cannot capture certain psychological aspects in animal models, and that is why it is important to move forward to studies in humans. That way we will understand, based on what we have already discovered, if it is possible to alleviate these diseases by inhibiting brain activity”, says the researcher .