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Research group Julie Lasselin's research group: Sickness behavior – what, how, and why?

In our research group, we investigate the behavioral changes and feelings occurring during infections, that is sickness behavior.

Our main model to study sickness behavior is the intravenous injection of a bacterial component (lipopolysaccharide) in healthy volunteers, which activates immune processes and induce a state of sickness for a few hours.

Picture credits: Julie Lasselin. Credit images: Bottom-left: from Lasselin et al., 2020, Mol Psych. Sick person in bed with orange blanket: 3D-Agentu/depositphotos. Sick person with thermometer in mouth: brgfx/Freepik, CC BY-SA. Via Wikimedia Commons, [rhinovirus:] adapted from Thomas Splettstoesser (www.scistyle.com), CC BY-SA 4.0; [influenza virus:] adapted from NIAID CC BY 2.0; [monocyte:] Blausen Medical, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Group description

We aim at understanding WHAT the behavioral changes and feelings that occur during acute inflammation are, HOW these changes are triggered and the factors underlying the inter-individual differences in the behavioral responses to infections, and WHY such changes are occurring during infections.

We are conducting basic science research, mainly using the model of experimental endotoxemia in humans. This model consists of an intravenous injection of a bacterial endotoxin, lipopolysaccharide, allowing activating immune processes and inducing sickness symptoms for a few hours.

With this model, we:

characterize in detail the overt and subjective behavioral changes induced by acute inflammation in humans;
analyze the psychobiological factors that interact with cytokines to affect the brain and behavior;
investigate the adaptive relevance of sickness behavior.

Our research is funded by the Swedish Research Council, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, the Osher Center for Integrative Health at Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska Institutet’s research foundation, and Region Stockholm.