Definition
Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) is the study of the brain–immune system interactions and, more specifically, interactions among behavioral, psychological, neural, endocrine, and immune system processes (Ader 1981).
Overview
The first PNI studies date back tο the 1920s, when Russian scientists, applying Pavlovian conditioning principles, investigated the classical conditioning of immune responses (Ader et al. 1995). The initial goal was to understand how psychological factors contribute to the development and progression of neuropsychiatric disorders, through the regulation of stress and immune system activities. However, as a discipline, it more clearly started to emerge in the 1960s, while the term was officially introduced in the 1980s by Ader (1980), during his Presidential Address to the American Psychosomatic Society. PNI is a multidisciplinary...
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Aretouli, E., Ojeda Del Pozo, N. (2021). Psychoneuroimmunology. In: Gu, D., Dupre, M.E. (eds) Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22009-9_963
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