Fig. 2: Modulation of ILC frequency and activation as a function of virtual or real stimulation.
From: Neural anticipation of virtual infection triggers an immune response
a, Study design for immunomonitoring. Participants were first exposed to neutral avatars (baseline). Blood samples were collected immediately after the baseline. Participants were then assigned to the neutral, infection or fearful cohort and exposed to the corresponding avatar condition (second session consisted of a 20-min cohort-specific VR stimulation, a 90-min break and a 10-min same cohort-specific VR stimulation). Blood samples were collected immediately at the end of the second VR session. In the vaccine cohort, blood samples were collected before and after flu vaccination (at the same time delay as for the VR cohorts, that is, with a 120-min time break between the first and second blood sampling). b, Scheme showing ILC identification from blood sampling. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated, stained, and analyzed by flow cytometry. Figure created with BioRender.com. ILCs were identified as FCSlowSSClow lymphocytes that were negative for lineage markers and positive for CD127. c, ILC frequency was measured at the baseline and after the second session. The synthetic index of ILC frequency changes (first PCA component) in the four experimental cohorts is shown (analysis of variance (ANOVA): F3,56 = 4.71, P = 0.0053). d, Synthetic index of ILC activation changes (first PCA component) in the four cohorts (see Supplementary Fig. 8 for activation marker expression in each ILC subset; ANOVA: F3,56 = 5.45, P = 0.0023). e,f, Synthetic index of ILC frequency changes (e) and ILC activation changes (f) in two different independent cohorts (only neutral and infectious avatars were tested); N = 16 distinct participants per cohort (P values were derived from two-tailed t-tests). g, Correlation between synthetic ILC frequency and activation indexes, with different colors denoting the different cohorts (R = 0.85, P < 0.0001); shaded ellipses indicate the 66% confidence interval for the mean of each cohort. The black segmented line represents the linear regression. In c–e and f, data are presented as the difference between the values after the second VR exposure and the values at baseline. Black dots and lines represent the mean (dot) ± s.e.m. (line). N = 15 distinct participants per cohort (c, d and g).
