Cognitive–immune Misrecognition through the Lens of Viparyaya (Misapprehension)

In the Yoga Sūtras, Viparyaya denotes misapprehension, knowledge that arises from erroneous perception and is not grounded in reality. It is classified as one of the five modes of mental modification (vṛtti), Viparyaya represents a fundamental failure of correct cognition. Since vṛtti is the medium through which unmanifest consciousness becomes expressed in the phenomenal world, an important question arises: can misapprehension originating in the cognitive domain propagate downstream into physiological and immunological dysregulation? In this editorial, Viparyaya is proposed as a systems-level conceptual framework that parallels failures of signal discrimination across cognitive, autonomic, and immune domains. While traditionally discussed within epistemological discourse, an analogous phenomenon is increasingly evident in contemporary biology, the failure of integrated neural, autonomic, and immune systems to correctly classify internal versus external signals. Viewed in this light, Viparyaya offers a useful interpretive model for understanding how loss of coherence at the level of perception may manifest as biological misrecognition in the physical body. CORTICAL COHERENCE AND PREDICTIVE ACCURACY Efficient cognition depends on coherent oscillatory synchronization across distributed cortical networks. Electrophysiological and neuroimaging studies demonstrate that phase alignment within and between frontoparietal, salience, and default-mode networks enables predictive coding, contextual integration, and minimization of perceptual error (Buzsáki and Draguhn, 2004; Friston, 2010). Disruption of this synchrony, whether through chronic stress exposure, affective dysregulation, or sustained hyperarousal, impairs predictive accuracy and regulatory control. Importantly, cortical decoherence is not confined to cognition alone. Functional disintegration of prefrontal regulatory networks diminishes top-down modulation of brainstem autonomic nuclei, thereby altering cardiovascular and inflammatory control mechanisms (Critchley and Harrison, 2013). Loss of neural coherence thus propagates into downstream physiological systems, creating conditions for persistent misclassification of internal signals. IMMUNE SURVEILLANCE AS DISTRIBUTED COGNITION The immune system functions as a decentralized, adaptive information-processing network that continuously evaluates antigenic inputs within their contextual milieu. Antigen presentation, clonal selection, memory formation, and tolerance induction together constitute a probabilistic decision-making architecture optimized to minimize both false-positive and false-negative responses (Cohen, 2007). Failures of immune discrimination parallel cognitive misrecognition. Autoimmune disease reflects excessive sensitivity, wherein self-antigens are misclassified as threats, whereas cancer progression often reflects the opposite error, pathological tolerance allowing malignant cells to evade detection. Although these conditions differ substantially in regulatory architecture and temporal dynamics, both increasingly appear to arise from regulatory failures rather than isolated molecular defects. In this sense, immune misrecognition mirrors Viparyaya at the biological level. AUTONOMIC INTEGRATION OF BRAIN–IMMUNE SIGNALING The autonomic nervous system provides the principal physiological interface between neural perception and immune effector function. Vagal efferent signaling suppresses pro-inflammatory cytokine release via nicotinic acetylcholine receptors on macrophages, forming the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway (Tracey, 2002; Pavlov and Tracey, 2017). Heart-rate variability (HRV), a quantitative index of vagal tone and baroreflex integrity, correlates strongly with emotional regulation, stress adaptability, and inflammatory restraint. Reduced HRV predicts elevated circulating interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor alpha, and C-reactive protein, alongside diminished anti-inflammatory mediators such as IL-10 (Thayer and Sternberg, 2006). From the Viparyaya framework, autonomic inflexibility represents a physiological signature of misrecognition, and persistent sympathetic dominance amplifies threat signaling even in the absence of genuine danger. STRESS-INDUCED DECOHERENCE AND IMMUNE MISCLASSIFICATION Chronic psychological stress acts as a systems-level perturbation that degrades coherence across neural, autonomic, and immune domains. Sustained hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis activation and sympathetic dominance alter cortical oscillatory patterns, suppress vagal efferent output, and bias immune signaling toward a pro-inflammatory phenotype (McEwen, 2007). Inflammatory cytokines, in turn, feedback to the brain, modulating neurotransmission and network connectivity, biasing perception toward negative valence and heightened vigilance (Dantzer et al., 2008). This bidirectional coupling establishes a self-reinforcing loop of decoherence. Autoimmune disorders may thus be conceptualized as a form of Viparyaya-based misrecognition characterized by hypervigilance, whereas oncological immune escape reflects the complementary error of pathological tolerance. MOLECULAR AND EPIGENETIC ENCODING OF MISRECOGNITION At the molecular level, cognitive–immune misrecognition is accompanied by transcriptional instability and epigenetic remodeling. Stress-responsive signaling pathways influence chromatin architecture and DNA methylation patterns in immune cells, particularly genes governing immune tolerance. Regulatory T-cell stability depends critically on sustained expression of FOXP3, which is sensitive to inflammatory conditions and epigenetic modulation. Disruption of FOXP3 expression compromises peripheral tolerance and predisposes to autoimmunity (Sakaguchi et al., 2008). Concurrently, dysregulated NF-κB signaling links neural stress pathways to inflammatory gene transcription, translating experiential states into long-term immunological bias (Lawrence and Natoli, 2011). Thus, transient cognitive and autonomic states may become biologically entrenched through epigenetic memory, converting momentary misapprehension into persistent immune misrecognition. RE-ESTABLISHING COHERENCE THROUGH RESPIRATORY–ATTENTIONAL REGULATION Interventions that restore neural–autonomic coherence address the regulatory roots of misrecognition. Slow, paced breathing at approximately six cycles per minute entrains baroreflex oscillations near 0.1 Hz, amplifying vagal efferent output and stabilizing cardiovascular and inflammatory dynamics (Lehrer and Gevirtz, 2014). Self-regulated practices such as yoga, attentional training, and mindfulness-based interventions further enhance large-scale cortical synchrony, particularly within prefrontal–limbic circuits responsible for appraisal and inhibition (Tang et al., 2015). Converging evidence indicates that these practices increase HRV, normalize cytokine profiles, and improve emotional regulation. In systems terms, they function as antidotes to Viparyaya-based misrecognition, restoring accurate signal classification across perception, physiology, and immunity. IMPLICATIONS FOR SYSTEMS MEDICINE Conceptualizing cognitive–immune misrecognition through the lens of Viparyaya shifts the emphasis from organ-specific pathology toward regulatory integrity influenced by mind–body interactions. Integrative biomarkers, electroencephalography phase synchrony, HRV indices, baroreflex gain, and oscillatory cytokine patterns serve as measurable indicators of coherence across systems and may be modulated through consciously mediated regulatory practices that influence neural and autonomic dynamics. This perspective supports a gradual shift from a purely matter-based paradigm toward a consciousness-informed systems approach to health. Future research should employ longitudinal, multimodal designs integrating neurophysiology, autonomic monitoring, and immunophenotyping to test whether restoration of coherence precedes clinical improvement. Therapeutically, interventions targeting coherence may offer broader efficacy across stress-related chronic diseases than strategies focused solely on symptom suppression. CONCLUSION Viparyaya, understood as misapprehension, captures a fundamental failure of discrimination across the brain–autonomic–immune axis. A misrecognition at the level of the mind may translate into misrecognition within biological systems through loss of coherence and regulatory integration. In neurobiological terms, Viparyaya represents systemic decoherence leading to cognitive–immune misclassification. Restoring coherence through self-regulated practices, yoga, attentional stabilization, and autonomic recalibration offers a mechanistically grounded pathway toward re-establishing immune tolerance, physiological resilience, and integrative health.