José R. Alonso has a PhD in Neurobiology and is professor of Cell Biology at the University of Salamanca. He has been researcher and visiting professor at the University of Frankfurt/Main and the University of Kiel, in Germany, and the University of California, Davis and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, in the United States. He has authored more than 145 articles in peer-reviewed journals and written 20 books including university textbooks and popular science for both adults and children.
Our body is at the core of our sense of self and our personal identity. However, the neural mechanisms underlying the conscious experience of our own body remain poorly understood. Partial or total anesthesia of the body does not lead to the disappearance of the bodily experience, but to a continued experience of the body’s […]
Serotonin or 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) is a neurotransmitter involved in various cognitive and affective functions. Drugs targeting serotonin transmission, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), are the first-line pharmacological treatments for many neuropsychiatric disorders such as major depressive disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety. These antidepressants increase the concentration in the synaptic space of this neurotransmitter […]
In 1868, the famous, powerful and short French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, known as “the Napoleon of the Salpêtrière hospital”, described a new disease. He called it “sclerose en plaque” in reference to the numerous scars or sclerosis seen in the white matter of the brain and spinal cord. We now call it multiple sclerosis. Multiple […]
Pain is a complex sensation that is mediated by both the peripheral and central nervous systems. In the peripheral nervous system, pain signals are generated by nerve fibers called nociceptors that respond to harmful stimuli. These signals are then transmitted to the brain through the spinal cord, where they are processed and interpreted as pain […]
Occasionally I receive groups of messages from families with autistic members and I know the reason: they have read in the press exciting news about autism, a spectacular treatment, even a miracle cure. Unfortunately, if all that news were true we would have solved autism hundreds of times by now. So let’s start with the […]
For a long time, it was thought that dreaming occurred in the rapid eye movement phase of sleep (REM sleep). It is now well established that it can occur at any stage of sleep and, therefore, is not exclusive to a specific global vigilance state. Today, there is no known physiological correlate of a dream […]
Antidepressants are the mainstay for treating depression, but their use is clouded by doubts about their short-, medium- and long-term efficacy. This is not to say that we should not use them, as these drugs save lives in many cases, but a recent review reinforces these questions as it sees little difference in the quality […]
Witchcraft involves the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, those accused of witchcraft were usually women who were believed to have attacked their own community and often to be in communion with evil beings. Witchcraft powers were acquired by inheritance or initiation […]
mTOR has nothing to do with Norse mythology, it stands for “mammalian target of rapamycin” or “target of rapamycin in mammalian cells”. mTOR is involved in important cellular processes, including growth, proliferation, motility, survival, protein synthesis, transcription and autophagy. The history of rapamycin is so suggestive that I cannot avoid mentioning it: in the 1960s […]
At a synapse, the plasma membrane of the neuron transmitting the information (the presynaptic neuron) is in close proximity to the membrane of the target cell (postsynaptic) and the two are separated by a space known as the synaptic cleft. Both the presynaptic and postsynaptic sites contain extensive assemblies of molecular machinery that link the […]