How Emotions and Stressful Thoughts Affect Your Health

Live From Technion Webinar with Professor Asya Rolls

Why is it that at least one-third of patients in medical trials get better with placebos? Many scientists are now connecting the dots. Neuroscience has shown that every thought and emotion triggers specific brain activity that can be measured and manipulated.

In this special webinar, made more relevant in these anxious times, Technion Professor Asya Rolls will talk about her research in understanding how one’s positive thoughts and expectations may impact the body’s ability to fight off germs. In one study, she showed that the release of the so-called “feel-good neurotransmitter” dopamine disabled tumor-promoting cells in the immune system of mice, allowing them to fight cancer.

Prof. Rolls is an associate professor in the Technion Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and an International Howard Hughes Medical Institute-Wellcome investigator. An expert in sleep deprivation and brain research, Prof. Rolls studies the physiological mechanisms by which emotions and thoughts affect physical health.