It is interesting how we describe social rejections – betrayal, exclusion from a group or a break-up from a romantic relationship are good examples: “he was cruel with me and it was painful”, “I suffered a lot during the divorce”, etc. Why we describe them as painful situations where there is no physical contact? If […]
Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage. It is the most common reason for physician consultation in most developed countries and after disease/damage of the nervous system is predominantly treated with opioids. Opioids are medications that relieve pain. They reduce the intensity of pain signals reaching the […]
In the first entry of this series I introduced the new research field of ‘plant neurobiology’, one of whose main sites is the Murcia University ‘Minimal Intelligence Lab’ under the direction of cognitive scientist and philosopher Paco Calvo. In that entry, I offered a brief sketch of the topics covered by the field, topics that […]
For a while, new evidence has been accumulating linking the gut microbiota to brain function. A new paper published recently in Cell Reports, shows that the intermediary is a type of white blood cell, evidencing as well the relationship between the brain and the immune system. While the crosstalk between the peripheral immune system and […]
It is said of philosophers that they are ever less willing to recognise a mistake than the ordinary intellect… sorry, man on the street. Actually, an old joke tells about a university rector saying to other that his favourite department is that of mathematics, for mathematicians only ask for paper, pencils and paper bins; “oh […]
We perceive the world surrounding us through our senses. Thanks to them we can have a pleasant time listening to Claude Debussy or get delighted by the scent of rosemary. We blindly trust them, but are they always truthful? A good answer would be they are accurate most of the time, although it seems nature […]
Prion diseases are a group of severe conditions that affect the nervous system of many animals, including humans. Although their causes were highly controversial, there is a widespread agreement nowadays that they are originated and transmitted by prions, infectious agents with a normal and an abnormal structure. The abnormal prion protein infects the host animal […]
Stammering, stuttering or alalia literalis is a speech disorder characterized by involuntary repetition and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words or phrases and involuntary silent pauses or blocks where the affected person is unable to produce sounds. Around 1-in-20 children aged 2 to 5 years old will stammer at some moment, but most grow out of […]
Neurogenesis is the process by which neurons are generated from neural stem cells and progenitor cells. It is a crucial part of neural development and is most active during pre-natal life, being responsible for populating the growing brain with neurons. Zika virus is an emerging mosquito-borne and sexually-transmitted flavivirus that was first identified in Uganda […]
He was a man of insatiable curiosity and a hallmark of modern multidisciplinarity. Yet he was born on an April day six centuries ago. He never attended university, and still he authored masterpieces in the history of art and cultivated a broad range of interests and skills. Distant domains such as painting, sculpture, technology and […]