Research on Psychoneuroimmunology
Lin Wenjuan
(Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China)
Abstract: An interdisciplinary research field of Psychoneuroimmunology focuses on the research of the interactions among the behavior, the nervous system, the endocrine system, and the immune system. It emphasizes that psychological or behavioral factors can influence immune function and therefore influence health and susceptibility to disease. However, the evidence for direct links between psychological processes and immune function is unconvincing. This review is concerned with the examination of the role of psycho-behavioral factors in the modulation of immune function and the related mechanisms. In contrast to review the evidence or data published in extensive literature, this review is only an attempt to cover the studies conducted in our own laboratory. These studies include conditioned immunity of both suppression and enhancement, effect of emotional stress, and psychological intervention in cancer patients. Evidence from the three lines of experimental data suggests that psychological processes, such as associative learning, emotion, and behavioral imagination do influence the immune function. The related mechanisms are also discussed.
Key words: Psychoneuroimmunology, conditioned immunity, emotional stress, psycho-behavioral intervention.
[7] Lin Wenjuan, King M, Husband A. Conditioned behavioral learning activated antibody response to ovalbumin: New evidence for the communication between CNS and immunity. Proceedings of the Second Afro-Asian Psychological Congress, 1993, 788~793
[10] Chen Jihuan, Lin Wenjuan, Wan Weiwen, Shao Feng, Yang Jie, Wang Bairen, Kuang Fang, Duan Xiaoli and Ju Gong. Enhancement of antibody production and expression of c-Fos in the insular cotex in response to a conditioned stimulus after a single-trial learning paradigm. Behavioral Brain Research, 2004, 154 (2): 557~565.
[11] Huang Jingxin, Lin Wenjuan, Chen Jihuan. Antibody response can be conditioned using electroacupuncture as conditioned stimulus. Neuroreport, 2004, 15(9): 1475~1478
[12] Lin Wenjuan, Li Jie, Zheng Li, Wang Weiwen, Chen Jihuan. Expression of c-fos in amygdala and conditioned immunosuppression. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 2004, 36(4): 500~505
[20] Shao Feng, Lin Wenjuan, Weiwen Wang, Washinton Jr WC and Zheng Li. The effect of emotional stress on the primary humoral immunity of rats. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 2003, 17 ( 2 ) : 153~157