Category archives: Neurobiology

A Renaissance brain

A Renaissance brain

HistoryNeurobiology

By José Viosca

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 […]

Breaking the barrier

Breaking the barrier

Neurobiology

By José Ramón Alonso

The blood-brain barrier is one of the defenses of the central nervous system. It is made of a thin layer of endothelial cells closely fitted together by tight junctions, being a mandatory pass between the blood and the neural cells. Thus, this barrier, considered the last great biochemical barricade in the organism, separates the blood […]

Fight suicide!

Fight suicide!

HealthNeurobiologyPharmacy

By José Ramón Alonso

Suicide is one of the worst health and social problems in the modern world. Hundreds of millions of persons experience suicidal thoughts every year and between 10 and 20 millions went on to attempt suicide. In Spain, although the average risk is lower than in Northern countries, almost 4.000 persons die every year by their […]

Human-mouse chimeras

Human-mouse chimeras

Neurobiology

By José Ramón Alonso

Chimera was a monster from the Greek mythology, a hybrid creature usually depicted as a lion, with the head of a goat arising from its back and a tail ending in a snake. In biology, the term «chimera» is used for a single organism with genetically distinct cells from two different zygotes, also a hybrid […]

What if Alzheimer’s disease was caused by fungi?

What if Alzheimer’s disease was caused by fungi?

HealthMedicineNeurobiologyNeuroscience

By Ignacio Amigo

More than a hundred years have passed since the German physicist Alois Alzheimer associated the traits of dementia of one of her patients with morphological changes in her brain after her death. While we know a great deal about what today is known as Alzheimer’s disease, we still need to answer two fundamental questions: what […]

Studying language in people with dementia

Studying language in people with dementia

LinguisticsNeurobiology

By Adrià Rofes

People who are diagnosed with dementia may initially report problems on memory and/or language that affect their activities of daily living. Once factors such as depression, delirium, or mild cognitive impairment, are disregarded, these people are typically referred to a neurologist, radiologist, and neuropsychologist or speech therapist who will help them to understand the reason […]

Best sleeping position for your brain

Best sleeping position for your brain

Neurobiology

By José Ramón Alonso

Sleep has a critical function in metabolic homeostasis. Its restorative function may be a consequence of the enhanced removal of potentially neurotoxic waste products that accumulate in the awake central nervous system . The glymphatic system is a functional waste pathway involved in this clearance in the mammalian central nervous system. The pathway consists of: […]