Can emotions affect health?
Is it possible that thoughts will impact the body’s ability to cope with disease?
And if they do… how does it happen?
Psychoneuroimmunologist Asya Rolls discusses how mental processes can affect immune responses and guides us through the physiological approaches to addressing the “mind-body question”. Asya Rolls is an Associate Professor at the Rappaport Medical School, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. She is also an International Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator.
Rolls studies the physiological mechanisms whereby emotions and thoughts affect physical health. By deciphering the neuronal pathways mediating brain-immune signals, her work aims to harness the brain’s therapeutic potential.

Rolls obtained her PhD from the Weizmann Institute, Israel and completed her postdoctoral training at Stanford University as a Fulbright Scholar. She was elected member of the FENS-KAVLI (2015-2018) and a member of the Israeli Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Her work has been recognized through a number of awards including the NARSAD Young Investigator Award, Krill Prize (Wolf Foundation), the Adelis Brain Research Award, Rappaport Prize and the ERC starting grant. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx