Mosquito bite itches and a bump rises at the injection site.
The brain perceives the irritation caused by the sting, and the person notes the unpleasant feeling.
This is how we are used to thinking about the connection between the body and the brain: Sensations in the body are messages that the brain receives and processes.
But could the connection also work the other way around?
This was found out in a recent study that was published Nature Human Behaviour in the journal.
The results indicate that the human immune response is not necessarily independent of the will.
Instead, focusing on the irritated skin area reduced the inflammation and accelerated its healing.
As subjects there were 57 adults.
At the beginning of the experiments, each participant was given a small acute inflammatory reaction. Everyone got a drop of histamine on their arm and also a small wound. A rash quickly appeared at the point of irritation, and the area began to redden.
After that, the subjects had to direct their attention in different ways in different tests.
First, they had to look at the cross on the screen, but they were instructed to focus as closely as possible on the irritation sensation in the hand.
A few days later, the same people were given another test.
They were again subjected to skin irritation, but during the experiment they were allowed to watch videos. Subjects were told to focus their attention as much as possible on the videos.
Later, even more experiments were conducted, in which the same idea was tested in different settings.
Experiments the results were clear.
Focusing the attention clearly affected what happened to the skin irritation area.
When the subject focused on the sensation, the inflammation caused by the skin irritation was milder, and the inflamed area also showed more signs of healing.
Concentration therefore reduced the inflammatory response, and this happened consistently in about 90 percent of the participants.
During concentration, the inflammatory response was about 1.5 times lower compared to the situation where you had to try to ignore the sensation.
“Disgraceful was that focusing attention on the inflamed area changed the participants’ experiences of pain, but also the inflammatory response itself,” said the author of the study, Dr. Liron Rosenkrantz in the bulletin.
“It is possible that the subjective experience of bodily events is not only a passive process, but may actively influence how physiological responses are regulated.”
You thus indicating that the body’s immune response can be voluntarily regulated to some extent.
Often people try to divert attention away from the pain. Based on the results, however, it may not be worth it. Ignoring pain can hinder the body’s ability to respond to inflammation.
The actual mechanism behind the body-mind connection was not mapped by the experiment.
Researchers speculate that the way the brain prioritizes signals from the body can affect how the body regulates itself.