Can the Nervous System be Hacked?

Re:Can the Nervous System be Hacked? by lucaspiller on Monday May 26, 2014 @04:46AM (#7799109)

The most interesting part of this to me is the link between the brain and the immune system. As the drug in the example had no effect on the body after the vagus nerve was cut, I wonder if when injected into the body the drug still has no effect - if it is all caused by the brain.

If that's the case I wonder if it's possible to achieve the same results just by 'thinking' the right things. It is possible to consciously control your heart rate which is a similar low level brain function (and I think also involves the vagus nerve).

I doubt this research will get much funding though as GSK can't sell a $50,000 device from this :)

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Re:Can the Nervous System be Hacked? by streptomycin on Monday May 26, 2014 @11:13AM (#7800037)

There has been some research in this area. This paper http://www.innerfire.nl/files/concentration-pickkers.pdf has one of my favorite opening sentences ever:

Objective: To investigate whether a special concentration/meditation technique employed by a Dutch individual known as ‘the iceman’ can influence anatomic nervous system activity and the innate immune response.

Looking more broadly in the literature, you can find many "biofeedback" studies related to inflammation and the immune system. For instance http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10484-010-9139-5 shows some interesting results in normal people (not just "the iceman"), but unfortunately, followup studies by that group were impeded by the untimely death of the last author :(

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