This workshop illustrates how the interface between neuroscience, the immune system, mind, and the brain affects mental health. For example, high levels of inflammation are strongly associated with a broad range of health and mental health problems, including devastating effects on mood, cognition, and the desire to engage other people. Inflammation can result from adversity and one of several dimensions of the interface between mind, brain, and body. In fact, long-term inflammation is strongly associated with anxiety, depression, and cognitive deficits, including dementia.

Objectives:

•  Define the relationship between health and mental health
•  Describe the interaction between the immune system, genes, brain dynamics, and mental health
•  Discuss how genes can be expressed or suppressed