Does your dog have social skills?

A study suggests that viewing the owner’s face works as a positive social reinforcement for dogs. Learn more about this and other surprising results about “man’s best friend”.

Prémio BIAL de Medicina Clínica 2022 distinguishes works on autism, brain tumors and hypertension

The award ceremony of the 20th edition of the Prémio BIAL de Medicina Clínica took place on February 8 at the Aula Magna of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto, being presided over by the President of the Republic, with the presence of the Minister of Health, Manuel Pizarro, the Secretary of State for Higher Education, Pedro Teixeira, and the Mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira.

Hypnosis, Meditation and Prayer. Which is the most helpful?

The research team led by Alexandra Ferreira-Valente, in the scope of project 188/18 - COping with PAin through Hypnosis, mindfulness and Spirituality (COPAHS), supported by the BIAL Foundation, compared the immediate effects of hypnosis, mindfulness meditation and Christian prayer (CP) on pain intensity and pain tolerance. Findings suggest that single short-term hypnosis and mindfulness meditation, but not Christian prayer, may be useful for acute pain self-management, with hypnosis being the slightly superior option. The paper Immediate Effects of Hypnosis, Mindfulness Meditation, and Prayer on Cold Pressor Outcomes: A Four-Arm Parallel Experimental Study, reporting these results study, was published in the Journal of Pain Research.

Can virtual reality reshape our self-representation?

In the scope of project 258/20 - In God's shoes: embodying the avatar of the supreme moral authority modulates psychophysiological indices of one's own morality, supported by the BIAL Foundation, Salvatore Aglioti and colleagues recruited a group of 54 volunteers, each of whom embodied three different avatars: one normal, one muscled and one omnipotent (an anthropomorphic representation of the Christian God). When embodying the omnipotent avatar, participants perceived adverse events as less threatening to their safety and thought they had more physical abilities, even when comparing to the muscled avatar. The authors concluded that the God-avatar may exert an influence on people’s perception of their own limits and capabilities. More information available in the article Embodying the avatar of an omnipotent agent modulates the perception of one’s own abilities and enhances feelings of invulnerability, published in Scientific Reports.