Do you know your immune system might be influencing your psychology? If not, some scientists have an explanation of some sort. Researchers of a new study have found connection between immune system and brain functions. The study led by the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the University of Virginia discovered immune system directly influencing behavior in Mice.

The discovery may have potential to help researchers find solution to conditions like schizophrenia and autism-spectrum disorders. The researchers have focused on interferon gamma, which is an immune system molecule that is activated in certain animals, including humans when they desire to be social.

Researchers in the study performed experiments on immune system that involved blocking the interferon gamma molecule and preventing them from activating. The results they produced via these experiments were remarkable. They found that on blocking the immune system molecule, the brain of the mice turned hyperactive. Thus, the mice stopped socializing with their other cage mates.

This led to the conclusion that the immune system manipulation leads to direct impact on behavior. In fact, to strengthen their findings, researchers sought to stop blockage in the immune system molecule, letting it operate freely in the brain. They noticed mice had calmed down and started behaving normally, similar to how it behaved before any experiment started.

“Immune molecules are actually defining how the brain is functioning. So, what is the overall impact of the immune system on our brain development and function? I think the philosophical aspects of this work are very interesting, but it also has potentially very important clinical implications”, said one of the study’s authors, Johathan Kipnis, chair of the University of Virginia’s Department of Neuroscience.

"The immune system research that was done at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the University of Virginia has discovered that the immune system has a direct effect on the social behaviors of animals like mice. This discovery could now have important ramifications for human that battle conditions like schizophrenia and autism-spectrum disorders," according to a recent iInquisitr report.

The question of why our immune systems and our personalities are so interconnected was also broached by the authors of the study. They have postulated that the connection may actually be an evolutionary mechanism built in to help a species survive. The linkage exists, encouraging social creatures to interact and yet boosting our immune systems at the same time to protect both the individual and the group.

As of now, the immune system experiment has only been conducted on mice, but there is a belief that the immune system – personality connection also exists in humans. This linkage is now leading scientists to believe that they may be on the verge of breakthroughs in how to best treat people with neurological disorders like schizophrenia and autism.

According to a report in Gizmodo by Carli Velocci, "Now, researchers at the University of Virginia and the University of Massachusetts Medical School are suggesting the immune system directly affects social behavior in certain creatures, such as mice, which can have profound implications for humans with autism-spectrum disorders and schizophrenia."

“It’s like a little airport in small cities [suddenly] become major hubs and so there’s a mess [of traffic congestion] in the air,” said Jonathan Kipnis, chair of UVA’s Department of Neuroscience and one of the authors of the study. “Same thing happens with the brain, so [the] brain cannot function properly.”

Of course, this theory has only been tested in mice, so there isn’t a correlation yet in humans, or even evidence that this connection exists, but Kipnis and the other authors believe that this could have implications for people with social disorders.