Interactions between the nervous and the immune systems have been a topic of great interest over the past few decades. Neuronal signals can affect immune functions, and immune cells can modulate the activity of neurons in the brain and spinal cord, or in the rest of the body (known as the periphery), in health and disease^1,2. Writing in Cell, Koren et al.³ demonstrate that inflammation in the abdominal cavity results in the stimulation of certain neurons in a brain area called the insular cortex, or the insula. Artificial reactivation of these ‘immune-imprinted’ neurons is sufficient to generate organ-specific recall of inflammatory responses that resemble the initial inflammatory episode.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-03802-x

Related Articles

• Read the paper: Insular cortex neurons encode and retrieve specific immune responses
  
  

• 

  Immune memory in the brain
  
  

• 

  Gut microbes tune inflammation and lifespan in a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
  
  

• See all News & Views
  
  

Subjects

• Neuroscience
• Immunology