________________
IMMUNITY AND ITS MODULATION BY
CONSCIOUS MIND
JPN Mishra
Mind-body relationship and its associated unresolved phenomenons are not new. In fact mind and body are not se parte phenomenons, one considered to be spirit and other to be the matter. They both are the integral constituents or two facets of one compact information system in the past several theories bave been given depicting various aspects of mind-body relationship but they all are still short of clear explanation they are interconnected and how they communicats to each other. While describing the psychobiology of mind-body healing processes, scientists have considered limbichypothalamic system to be the main seat of control mediating and moderating emotionally-laden those psychological processes. The hypothalamus morphologically does not appear to be a descrete easily identifiable as are various other vital organs like heart, lungs etc. It is a locus of tissues with seemingly vague boundaries at the base of forebrain. It consists of several group of neurons termed as nuclei or centres of mind body transduction or regulation. These nuclei are concerned with the regulation of co-internal environment through autonomic, endocrine and immune systems. The word limbic was originally used to describe the border between the 'higher' mind functions of cerebral cortex and 'lower' structures of brain involved with the regulation of emotions and other physiological aspects of body physiology (Rossi, EL, 1988). The hypothalamus is considered to be the major output pathway of the limbic system. It integrates the sensory perceptual, emotional and cognitive functions of mind with body physiology. Since the limbic-hypothalamic system is in a process of constantly shifting psycho-neuro-physiological states all learning associated with it is of necessarily state dependant (Rossi, EL., 1988). In the recent years it has been recognised that hypothalamus also plays an important role in regulating the functions of immune system. Ader (1989) and Stein et al. (1981) have discovered the fact that hypothalamus (its anterior and posterior nuclei) can alter the function of immune system (both cellular and humoral immunity).
The morphological structures and functions of the immune system are simple to uaderstand in general way but incredibly com ).
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
