The Social Life of the Immune System
How does the immune system shape the ways we think, feel, and behave in our social worlds? In this talk, I will describe research from my lab that examines how inflammatory activity influences social motivation, perception, and behavior in humans. Drawing on experimental inflammatory challenge studies, daily experience sampling, and neuroimaging approaches, I’ll show that inflammation can shift people’s social experiences—sometimes heightening sensitivity to social threat and rejection, and other times enhancing the value of social connection and care. These findings suggest that the immune system plays a central role in regulating social life, revealing one of the many ways biology participates in shaping the mind.