True empathy is considered by most researchers to be an exclusive ability of primates, particularly humans and apes, the result of complex reasoning and abstract thought. However, empathy may be a phylogenetically continuous ability with particular types such as «emotional contagion» present in all classes of mammals. In fact, it has been shown that empathy […]
The idea that the brain might be in a critical state has been around for a while now. Ever since neuroscientists began wondering about where the noisy neural activity recorded in vivo came from, criticality has stood up as one of the main candidates to consider. But what is criticality? The term can be traced […]
“ Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering”. Grand Master Yoda This is the second chapter of a series of 2 articles that pretends to illustrate how the emotional state of our parents influence our brain development. The first article focused completely […]
Humans have known and used the cannabis plant for as long as 10,000 years. During this time it has been utilized to such different things as to make ropes and clothes, to induce mental states in religious rituals and to treat diseases. Once considered a sacred plant, possession and use of cannabis is illegal in […]
In 1968, the Canadian psychologist from McGill University Ronald Melzack described pain as being multidimensional and complex, with sensory-discriminative, affective-motivational and cognitive-evaluative components . Such definition may be a hint as to why the biological meaning of pain has been an (to date) unceasing matter of debate since Aristotle, who thought pain is just a […]
We all have heard stories about young blood-consuming vampires remaining eternally youthful. Although lots of literary fictions have become true with scientific progress, no one would ever believe that young blood could have rejuvenative effects on the elderly. Surprisingly, this is recently becoming true with the increasing evidence in biomedical research showing that old mice […]
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is one of the most devastating human pathologies. AD is the leading cause of age-related dementia and currently afflicts more than 44 million persons worldwide (World Alzheimer Report 2014). It is characterized by a cognitive decline and memory loss and by the appearance of two pathological hallmarks: beta amyloid plaques and cytoskeletal […]
It is possible that we know more about the cause of skin cancer than about any other type of cancer. The link between sun exposure (UV radiation) and the development of skin cancer is solidly established. And yet, the incidence of this disease is increasing year after year with a steepest slope than any other […]
Building machines which mimic the capacities of biological brains –and of the human brain in particular– is one of the main challenges of modern science. With the fast development of computer speed and power in the second half of the past century, this goal seemed, in the early days of artificial intelligence, simply a matter […]
You have probably heard this sentence: “the brain is the most complex organ in the universe”. Let´s dive inside such assertion to get a deeper feeling. The human brain contains around 86.000 million of neurons distributed across a bunch of brain areas ( roughly 190 ). That´s one thing, not everything. Even more complex is […]