Personality Could Be Regulated By The Immune System
The study of personality types is one of the main areas of research in psychology.
Several proposals for tests and personality systems that are very useful both in applied psychology and in research have emerged from it. Howeverstill very little is known about what causes the emergence of personality itself We realize that there are differences in people’s behavior (and thought) patterns, but we do not know what their origin is. Genetics? Differences in learning? The answer to this issue, in addition to being a mystery, seems to be very complex.
However, recent research has shed some light on the matter, and has done so based on a possible answer that is surprising. An aspect of our personality could be controlled by our immune system
The conclusions of the study, which have been published in the journal Nature and are signed by several researchers from the University of Virginia, point to the possibility that part of our social behavior has appeared under the influence that the immune system has on our brain.
The research was carried out from the study of several laboratory mice in whose bodies there was a shortage of a molecule called gamma interferon (IFN-y). This element has a very important role in the immune response to pathogens, so you could say that it fights diseases.
But its relevance does not only stop at that, judging by what was observed in the mice. These rodents yes e were significantly less sociable than the rest and his behavior resembled what happens in cases of autism.
Furthermore, by putting these animals under observation using the functional magnetic resonance technique, it was seen that some areas of the prefrontal lobe were much more activated than is normal in individuals of their species. This was illuminating, because it is known that the prefrontal lobe has an important role in regulating social behavior, and also calms the orders that reach the cortex from the limbic system, which is the part of the brain responsible for the appearance of emotions. .
The immune system and molecules to be more social
Once this had been observed, the researchers injected IFN-y into this group of animals and, immediately afterwards, they saw how their behavior became that of a more sociable, completely normal mouse.
Furthermore, they found that after introducing this type of molecule into the body of the mice, the amount of a neurotransmitter called GABA had increased, responsible among other things for inhibiting the activation of many neurons in the prefrontal lobe. This caused the level of activity in this area to drop until it was within normal limits.
More studies, more evidence in favor
The same researchers carried out another type of study, this time from an evolutionary perspective, to see if the role of gamma interferon was as relevant as it seemed. To do this, they analyzed the genome of several animal species. In this way, they discovered that those animals that had been sharing space with other members of their species were more predisposed to making the gene responsible for the production of IFN-y more expressed, while the opposite occurred with those that had been more isolated. .
That is, these different animal species were genetically programmed to produce more IFN-y when they were in social situations, even if they were not infected.
The implications of the study
The discovery carried out in this study is very relevant for two reasons.
The first of them is that the most intuitive and apparently logical thing would be to think that it was social behavior that, making the contagion of diseases higher, had effects on the immune system of our ancestors, and not the other way around. This research breaks with this idea by placing the immune system as a possible trigger for the beginning of the sociable personality
Furthermore, according to Jonathan Kipnis, one of the co-authors of the study, it was believed that the immune system and the brain each functioned on their own, and when immunological activity was seen in the brain it was interpreted as a sign of disease. Therefore, knowing that certain immunological components can have such significant effects on the brain opens the door to future lines of research that allow us to know more and better about human and animal behavior.
