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”.

The Portuguese Medical Association and the BIAL Foundation deliver the 2nd edition of the Maria de Sousa Award

The award ceremony for the 2nd edition of the Maria de Sousa Award took place on November 14 at Teatro Thalia, in Lisbon, and was attended by the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Elvira Fortunato, who chaired the session, the Secretary of State for the Promotion of Health, Margarida Tavares, representing the Minister of Health, and the Secretary of State for Higher Education, Pedro Teixeira.

Are imagination and overt action associated with the same brain mechanisms?

In the scope of the project 193/18 - The essential role of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in motor imagery: A TMS interference study, Scott Glover et al. published in the journal Behavioural Brain Research the paper “TMS over dorsolateral prefrontal cortex affects the timing of motor imagery but not overt action: Further support for the motor-cognitive model”.

Can brain functioning mechanisms be affected by perceived stress?

Pedro Morgado, supported by the Bial Foundation in the scope of the project 206/16 – Developing a neurofunctional intervention for emotion regulation under stress demonstrated that higher levels of perceived stress are directly associated with an increase in connectivity between the amygdala and regions of the frontal cortex, which is driven by a reduction in the pattern of activity between the amygdala and the hippocampus that evolves in opposite directions compared to other brain areas.