Immunology needs the mind.

As a neuroimmunologist working in the field of research, I appreciated the review entitled 'Elaborate interactions between the immune and the nervous systems'1. I appreciated it all the more because immunology journals and immunologists in general tend to be somewhat disturbed by evidence that the two main adaptive systems of the body, the brain and the immune system, operate by continuous crosstalk to maintain homeostasis. Perhaps this is because both the nervous and the immune systems themselves are extremely complex and function through mechanisms not yet completely understood. Early during my scientific career, a common referee response to my grant applications or manuscripts sounded like this: "The immune system is already very complex. I see no interest or benefit in adding new and fancy intricacies." Nature obviously had a different idea about the physiology of the immune and nervous systems.