Where you direct your attention may shape your body’s inflammatory response
Inflammation is thought to run on autopilot, but new experiments suggest attention plays a role. When people focused on an itchy skin reaction instead of distracting themselves, the swelling was smaller, a pattern seen in about 90 percent of participants.
New research suggests that directing one's attention to physical sensations on the skin may help control the body's inflammatory response. Published in Nature Human Behaviour, the study found that when participants intentionally focused on a localized skin reaction, the resulting swelling and redness were significantly smaller and subsided more quickly compared to when they distracted themselves with other activities.
The experiments, led by researchers from the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, tested whether conscious awareness plays an active role in the body's immune regulation. The findings challenge the notion that inflammation is an automatic process and highlight the potential impact of cognitive processes on physiological defenses.
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