Attention regulates acute inflammation study

A study led by Dr. Liron Rozenkrantz at Bar-Ilan University's Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, published in Nature Human Behaviour, demonstrates that voluntary attention can modulate acute inflammatory responses in humans. In three preregistered experiments with 57 healthy volunteers, focusing attention on an inflamed skin area reduced the inflammatory response by about 1.5-fold and accelerated recovery compared to distraction. The effect was observed in nearly 90% of participants and involved both sensory and top-down neural pathways. The findings suggest that attention may act as a biological control signal, potentially informing future behavioral interventions for inflammatory conditions, though applicability to chronic diseases remains to be determined.