Robert Ader

In 1974 Robert Ader discovered that the immune system of rats can be conditioned to respond to external stimuli unrelated to immune function.

Ader was investigating how long conditioned responses (in the sense of Pavlov's conditioning of dogs to drool when they heard a bell ring) might last in laboratory rats. To condition the rats, he used a combination of saccharine-laced water and the drug Cytoxan which induces nausea and suppresses the immune system. Ader was surprised to discover that after conditioning, just feeding the rats saccharine-laced water was sufficient to suppress the immune system of the rats. In other words, a signal via the nervous system (taste) was effecting immune function. This was one of the first scientific experiments that demonstrated that the nervous system can affect the immune system.

Ader coined the term psychoneuroimmunology and wrote the two-volume book "Psychoneuroimmunology" along with David L. Felten and Nicholas Cohen[2].

Books
Ader, Robert, Felten,David L. Cohen,Nicholas , Psychoneuroimmunology, 3rd edition, 2 volumes, Academic Press, (2001)  , ISBN 0-12-044314-7

Papers

 * Ader. R. (2003) Conditioned immunomodulation: research needs and directions. Brain, Behavior and Immunity,17(Suppl.1),S51.-7.
 * Ader, R. and Cohen, N. (1975) Behaviorally conditioned immunosuppression, Psychosomatic Medicine, 37. 333-40.
 * Ader, R. and Cohen, N. (1985) CNS-immune system interactions conditioning phenomena. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 8, 3 79-94.