To investigate the possible influence of stimulation of the immune system on cognitive tasks, healthy volunteers were vaccinated against hepatitis B and tested over a six months period in a simple reaction times and the Stroop task. In general, the “Stroop effect” demonstrates that both the name and meaning of a word are automatically processed even when voluntary attention is trying hard not to process them. Unlike Placebo group, Vaccinated subjects showed a persistent lack of the classical Stroop effect. These findings may be explained by a constraint satisfaction model of the Stroop task, assuming a selective weakening of the connection matrix, and suggest that immune-cognitive effects may occur, besides the well known cognitive-immune influences like those elicited by emotional stress.
Long-term effects of vaccination on attentional performance / R. NICOLETTI; C.A. PORRO; G. BRIGHETTI; D. MONTI; G. PAGNONI; M. GUIDO; S. RUBICHI; C. FRANCESCHI. - In: VACCINE. - ISSN 0264-410X. - STAMPA. - 22 (29-30):(2004), pp. 3877-3881. [10.1016/j.vaccine.2004.04.008]
Long-term effects of vaccination on attentional performance
NICOLETTI, ROBERTO;BRIGHETTI, GIANNI;FRANCESCHI, CLAUDIO
2004
Abstract
To investigate the possible influence of stimulation of the immune system on cognitive tasks, healthy volunteers were vaccinated against hepatitis B and tested over a six months period in a simple reaction times and the Stroop task. In general, the “Stroop effect” demonstrates that both the name and meaning of a word are automatically processed even when voluntary attention is trying hard not to process them. Unlike Placebo group, Vaccinated subjects showed a persistent lack of the classical Stroop effect. These findings may be explained by a constraint satisfaction model of the Stroop task, assuming a selective weakening of the connection matrix, and suggest that immune-cognitive effects may occur, besides the well known cognitive-immune influences like those elicited by emotional stress.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.