People with more peace of mind are better at regulating emotions?

Research shows that people with higher levels of peace of mind are better at reinterpreting situations to regulate their emotions, rather than suppressing them.

Mother's stress during pregnancy can impact children’s sleep in childhood

Study shows that mothers' psychosocial stress during pregnancy has negative associations with their children's sleep that persist across childhood.

Do robots have to be human-like for us to trust them?

Recently published research assessed human trust when collaborating with eyed and non-eyed robots of the same type.

The perception of visual motion

Everyday interactions with the environment require a correct estimation of both self- and object- motion velocities. Perception of object-motion speed is essential to approach or avoid them properly. In many circumstances, object-motion perception is complicated by concomitant self-motion. One of the main challenges for the visual system is to determine the source of the movement that generates the flow pattern: self-motion, object-motion, or their combination. Thus, the research team led by Valentina Sulpizio aimed to establish (1) the sensitivity of several motion-related cortical regions (egomotion regions) to different visually induced motion conditions, including both self- and object-displacements and a combination of them; and (2) whether the activity of these regions was affected by the velocity of both self- and object-motion, thus providing new insight into their role in discriminating between different self- and object-motion velocities. A differentiated profile emerged among the egomotion regions (cingulate sulcus visual area, posterior cingulate sulcus area, posterior insular cortex [PIC], V6+, V3A, IPSmot/VIP, and MT+) during a visual motion stimulation including self- and object-displacements and a combination of them. All the egomotion regions (except area PIC) responded to all the possible combinations of self- and object-motion and were further modulated by the self-motion velocity. Interestingly, only MT+, V6+, and V3A were further modulated by object-motion velocities, hence reflecting their possible role in discriminating between distinct velocities of self- and object-motion. These findings are detailed in the paper Neural sensitivity to translational self- and object-motion velocities published in the journal Human Brain Mapping, in the scope the research project 24/20 - World-relative object motion: How the brain detects object motion while we are moving, supported by the BIAL Foundation.

Luís Portela honoured with Prémio Universidade de Lisboa

Luís Portela was awarded in recognition of the "social impact, innovative personality, unique entrepreneurship and visionary leadership".

BIAL Award in Biomedicine 2023 distinguishes pioneering research in brain cancer

A team led by researchers from the University of Heidelberg in Germany, won the BIAL Award in Biomedicine with a work focused on cancer neuroscience.