Category archives: Neurobiology

Placebo and creativity

Placebo and creativity

Neurobiology

By José Ramón Alonso

A placebo is a substance or treatment that does not contain any active ingredient or rest in a physiological procedure out of the placebo effect, but still achieves a real change. The placebo effect is a psychobiological phenomenon, but it generates authentic physical changes, something that can be observed, for example, in the heartbeat, blood […]

Neurexins and autism

Neurexins and autism

Neurobiology

By José Ramón Alonso

Thomas C. Südhof (Göttingen, Germany, December 22, 1955) is a neurobiologist awarded in 2013 with the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his studies on the trafficking of vesicles in the cell. Südhof has just published an article in the journal Cell, one of the best in the world, about neurexins, one of the most interesting […]

Novel strategies to selectively reduce pain

Novel strategies to selectively reduce pain

MedicineNeurobiologyPharmacy

By Sergio Laínez

A recurrent problem with pain is the absence of therapeutic strategies to selectively block the nociceptors (neurons responsible to detect painful stimuli) that need to be targeted for a particular indication. Things get even worse if we take into account that some molecules used for pain management do affect other, more general physiological processes. Local […]

Voles and the chemistry of love

Voles and the chemistry of love

Neurobiology

By Isabel Perez Castro

The question of how human interaction works is a neurochemical one, but it’s not easy to solve. While many experiments cannot be performed on humans or primates, smaller laboratory animals are useless for this research due to their differences with us. But prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) have social traits that had previously been assumed as […]

Minibrains: a present from the tooth fairy

Minibrains: a present from the tooth fairy

Neurobiology

By José Ramón Alonso

S tem cells can be cultured, multiplied and differentiated. By interacting with each other in this process of specialization they can follow organization programs that show striking similarities with what happens in the entire organism. This way you can form organoids —microscopic, yet primitively functional versions of livers, kidneys, hearts and brains grown from real […]

Alpha by design

Alpha by design

BiologyNeurobiology

By José Ramón Alonso

In social species, the dominant individual is often called the alpha. Depending on the species, the alpha may be a male, a female, both or a pair. The alpha individual usually presents a certain behavior: dominant, assertive, brash and usually has privileged access to food, mates, or best space, while the other members of the […]