Category archives: Neuroscience

The brain has a direct connection to the lymphatic system

The brain has a direct connection to the lymphatic system

BiomedicineNeurobiologyNeuroscience

By José Ramón Alonso

The lymphatic system performs important immune functions, and runs parallel to the blood circulatory system to provide a secondary circulation that transports excess interstitial fluid, proteins and metabolic waste products from the systemic tissues back into the blood. For centuries, it was thought that the central nervous system lacks a lymphatic drainage system and the […]

The poor brain

The poor brain

NeurobiologyNeuroscience

By José Ramón Alonso

The human brain continues its development postnatally. It is a long process that extends throughout, at least, the first two decades of life. Along these years, environmental factors influence brain functions and, not surprisingly because of its high plasticity, brain structure. Among the variables that may affect the cognitive development is the socioeconomic status. Three […]

I see your pain

I see your pain

NeurobiologyNeuroscience

By José Ramón Alonso

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 […]

What is consciousness? (2): Is the hard problem really hard?

What is consciousness? (2): Is the hard problem really hard?

NeurosciencePhilosophy of science

By Jesús Zamora Bonilla

As we saw in the previous entry of this series, philosophers of mind usually distinguish between what (after David Chalmers) they called the ‘easy’ and the ‘hard’ problem of consciousness. The ‘easy’ problem refers to how to explain the functioning of the brain: how does it manage to do things that seem to require some […]

The Naked Brain

The Naked Brain

MaterialsNeuroscience

By Sergio Laínez

The human brain is arguably the most fascinating organ found in nature. Its complexity has been known since Santiago Ramón y Cajal pioneering work showed the central nervous system (CNS) was a contiguous neuronal network where neuron is the basic unit as opposed to the view of the brain being a single continuous network (reticulum) […]