Psychology 2036A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Antigen, Biopsychosocial Model, B Cell

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2036A/B
• Professor: Doug Hazlewood

Document Summary

Part 2: the immune system"s response to threats: nonspecific immunity, immune system that attacks anything that looks unusual, first like, key players: Phagocytes = first line of defense: scavengers that engulf & digest antigens in body fluids before they infect cells. Natural killer (nk) cells = second line of defense: attack and destroy infected (and cancerous) cells, specific immunity, attacks specific threats that have been encountered before, humoral immunity. Detects previously encountered antigens while they are still in body fluids. Pychoneuroimmunology: role of psychosocial factors in the immune response. Indicators that immune system is compromised: decrease in number of b, t & nk cells, decreased ability of immune system to destroy foreign invaders. B & t lymphocytes are too weak to kill antigens or infected cells. Phagocytes have reduced ability to ingest invaders. Immune cells don"t reproduce fast enough when challenged by invaders. Part 3: immune responses can be learned (or conditioned)