At SciAm Blogs today, I’m proud to present the first Scicurious Guest Writer, Nicole Baganz. She’s writing about the possible link between sickness behavior and mental illness.

In the case of infection, sickness behavior is a normal response to halt the spread of the bug and help the organism get better. In the absence of an infection, however, depressive symptoms could arise from inappropriate immune system activation. Ultimately, these studies could shed light on what happens in the depressed brain and begin to erase the stigma that remains attached to mental illness.

Head over, check her out, and let her know that she did a great job! And keep an eye out, the next guest writer is just around the corner!