The immune system and other cognitive systems

In the following pages we propose a theory on cognitive systems and the common strategies of perception, which are at the basis of their function. We demonstrate that these strategies are easily seen to be in place in known cognitive systems such as vision and language. Furthermore we show that taking these strategies into consideration implies a new outlook on immune function calling for a new appraisal of the immune system as a cognitive system

A Major Transition in Immune System Evolution

Social insect colonies can express adaptive, organism-like design. In some cases, colonies so resemble a unique, cohesive and integrated “individual” that they are termed superorganisms. The major evolutionary transitions framework explains, via inclusive fitness theory, how new levels of biological individuality, including genes into genomes within cells, cells into multicellular organisms and organisms into superorganisms can emerge. Importantly, it highlights how at each major transition similar challenges arose and why seemingly convergent solutions evolved. One challenge faced at each transition is exploitation, caused internally by social cheaters and externally by parasites and pathogens. To overcome the problem of exploitation transitions in biological individuality required novel immune systems to maintain the integrity of newly emerged individuals. Multicellular organisms evolved an immune system while social insect colonies evolved a social immune system. In this review, we take a major transitions perspective of immunity to highlight the interdependency between the evolution of immune systems and the emergence of biological individuality. We build on the notion that superorganisms have evolved an immune system to promote the fitness of the colony. We draw parallels between the evolution of the metazoan immune system and the social immune system, and their expression as cognitive networks. Moreover, we discuss how research on other group-living species, such as family based cooperative breeders, can inform our understanding of how social immune systems evolve. We conclude that superorganism immunity is an adaptive suite of organismal traits that evolves to maximize the fitness of advanced social insect colonies, fulfilling the same function as the immune system of Metazoa

Correlation Between VACS Index and Frailty in HIV+ People and How It Affects Cognition and Brain Volume

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that causes an infection within the immune system and can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) if not properly addressed. While this disease specifically attacks the immune system, it also affects other systems, such as the brain. One major relationship we will be investigating is between HIV status and the Veterans Aging Cohort Study (VACS) index, which includes race, sex and other biomarkers such as CD4 count, viral load, hepatitis C infection, and hemoglobin. We hypothesize that there will be a strong correlation between the VACS index and frailty in those with HIV; we also predict there will be changes in cognition and brain volumes. Ninety-seven individuals between the ages of 50 and 77 completed neuropsychological testing and neuroimaging. The mean age for males is 57.2 (54% AA) and females is 56.11 (78% AA). The mean years of education for men is 13.8, and 12.4 for women. Individuals were divided into 3 groups based on their severity of frailty (Non-Frail, Pre-Frail, and Frail (N=19). In the present study, we propose to examine potential differences in neuropsychological scores and structural neuroimaging between these groups. Additionally, we will examine whether the VACS index is predictive of more severe frailty and worse cognitive outcomes and structural neuroimaging. Previous studies have shown that the VACS index is more predictive of mortality risks and frailty in older adults than HIV biomarkers alone. We plan to investigate if these indices are correlated to neuropsychological measures and neuroimaging

Lymphocytes in Alzheimer’s Disease Pathology: Altered Signaling Pathways

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder marked by progressive impairment of cognitive ability. Patients with AD display neuropathological lesions including plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and neuronal loss in brain regions linked to cognitive functions. Despite progress in uncovering many of the factors that contribute to the etiology of this disease, the cause of neuronal death is largely unknown. Neuroinflammation seems to play a critical role in the pathogenesis of AD. Inflammatory processes in the brain are mainly mediated by the intrinsic innate immune system consisting of astrocytes and microglial cells, and cytokine, chemokine, and growth factor signaling molecules. However mounting evidence suggest that the Central Nervous System (CNS) is accessible to lymphocytes and monocytes from the blood stream, indicating that there is an intense crosstalk between the immune and the CN systems. On the other hand, some AD-specific brain-derived proteins or metabolites may enter the plasma through a deficient blood-brain barrier, and exert some measurable signaling properties in peripheral cells. The goals of this review are: 1) to explore the evidences of changes in signaling pathways that could mediate both central and peripheral manifestations of AD, and 2) to explore whether changes in immune cells, particularly lymphocytes, could contribute to AD pathogenesis

Proposing a new focus for the study of natural and artificial cognitive systems

In the study of systems the function of the system is often a good hint to how it works. In the following paper I would like to suggest that in studying or modeling a cognitive system our pre-knowledge of their functions should be treated carefully. We should focus on the statistical distribution of the system's environment and the ways this distribution affects the behavior and development of the cognitive system. I will show an example of how such a focus changes the view of the immune system. I would also like to show how this new outlook on the study of cognitive systems could affect attempts at creating artifcial cognitive system

Immune cognition, social justice and asthma: structured stress and the developing immune system

We explore the implications of IR Cohen's work on immune cognition for understanding rising rates of asthma morbidity and mortality in the US. Immune cognition is conjoined with central nervous system cognition, and with the cognitive function of the embedding sociocultural networks by which individuals are acculturated and through which they work with others to meet challenges of threat and opportunity. Using a mathematical model, we find that externally- imposed patterns of 'structured stress' can, through their effect on a child's socioculture, become synergistic with the development of immune cognition, triggering the persistence of an atopic Th2 phenotype, a necessary precursor to asthma and other immune disease. Reversal of the rising tide of asthma and related chronic diseases in the US thus seems unlikely without a 21st Century version of the earlier Great Urban Reforms which ended the scourge of infectious diseases

The ecology of suffering: developmental disorders of structured stress, emotion, and chronic inflammation

'Punctuated equilibrium' models of cognitive process, adapted from the Large Deviations Program of probability theory, are applied to the interaction between immune function and emotion in the context of culturally structured psychosocial stress. The analysis suggests: (1) Chronic inflammatory diseases should be comorbid and synergistic with characteristic emotional dysfunction, and may form a collection of joint disorders most effectively treated at the individual level using multifactorial 'mind/body' strategies. (2) Culturally constructed psychosocial stress can literally write an image of itself onto the punctuated etiology and progression of such composite disorders, beginning a trajectory to disease in utero or early childhood, and continuing throughout the life course, suggesting that, when moderated by 'social exposures', these are developmental disorders. (3) At the community level of organization, strategies for prevention and control of the spectrum of emotional/inflammatory developmental disorders must include redress of cross-sectional and logitudinal (i.e. historical) patterns of inequality and injustice which generate structured psychosocial stress. Evidence further suggests that within 'Westernized' or 'market economy' societies, such stress will inevitably entrain high as well as lower stutus subopulations into a unified ecology of suffering

Structured Psychosocial Stress and Therapeutic Intervention: Toward a Realistic Biological Medicine

Using generalized 'language of thought' arguments appropriate to interacting cognitive modules, we explore how disease states can interact with medical treatment, including, but not limited to, drug therapy. The feedback between treatment and response creates a kind of idiotypic 'hall of mirrors' generating a pattern of 'efficacy', 'treatment failure', and 'adverse reactions' which will, from a Rate Distortion perspective, embody a distorted image of externally-imposed structured psychosocial stress. This analysis, unlike current pharmacogenetics, does not either reify 'race' or blame the victim by using genetic structure to place the locus-of-control within a group or individual. Rather, it suggests that a comparatively simple series of questions to identify longitudinal and cross-sectional stressors may provide more effective guidance for specification of individual therapy than complicated genotyping strategies of dubious meaning. These latter are likely to be both very expensive and utterly blind to the impact of structured psychosocial stress -- a euphemism for various forms of racism and ethnic cleansing -- which, we contend, is often a principal determinant of treatment outcome at both individual and community levels of organization. We propose, to effectively address 'health disparities' between populations, and in contrast to current biomedical ideology based on a simplistic genetic determinism, a richer program of biological medicine reflecting Lewontin's 'triple helix' of genes, environment, and development, a program more in concert with the realities of a basic human biology marked by hypersociality unusual in vertibrates. Aggressive social, economic, and other policies of affirmative action to redress the persisting burdens of history would be an integral component of any such project

Application of an AIS to the problem of through life health management of remotely piloted aircraft

The operation of RPAS includes a cognitive problem for the operators(Pilots, maintainers, ,managers, and the wider organization) to effectively maintain their situational awareness of the aircraft and predict its health state. This has a large impact on their ability to successfully identify faults and manage systems during operations. To overcome these system deficiencies an asset health management system that integrates more cognitive abilities to aid situational awareness could prove beneficial. This paper outlines an artificial immune system (AIS) approach that could meet these challenges and an experimental method within which to evaluate it

Activating the Biological and Behavioral Immune Systems

Psychology recognizes two distinct facets of the immune system: the biological immune system (BIO), covering all processes of the typical immune system, and the behavioral immune system (BEH), a set of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses to environmental stimuli. Research on this dual immune system indicates that each is capable of influencing the other (Schaller & Park, 2011). For example, perception of illness in others can activate the sympathetic nervous system (Schaller, Miller, Gervais, Yager, & Chen, 2010). Furthermore, evidence suggests that these two systems are capable of influencing moral judgment (Inbar, Pizarro, & Bloom, 2008). This study aims to further the overall understanding of the BEH and the manner in which it influences the BIO. Participants were recruited from college psychology courses in exchange for extra credit. These participants completed questionnaires regarding moral judgments and illness perception either before or after engaging in a visual stimulus task in which participants were prompted to select a face from a set of four using 32 different sets of photographs, each exposed for only 50 milliseconds. One face in each set of four appeared to be sick or engaged in sick behavior (coughing or sneezing). Saliva samples were taken from each participant before and after the questionnaire and visual stimulus task to measure and compare the levels of cortisol. Participants detected “sick” faces significantly above chance. Unfortunately, participants’ cortisol levels could not be analyzed due to error in the cortisol assay process. The face detection task did not affect moral judgments. Our primary results indicate that pathogen threat is salient even when the individual cannot completely process or analyze the stimulus. This research has many implications for medical treatment and decision making processes. More research is necessary to understand how the physiological activities of the BIO alone affect the processes of the BEH