News

Do women show greater engagement for multitasking?

A study involving 167 UK participants showed that women believed to be consistently stronger on multitasking than men.

Does age change the dream recall?

Study reveals that there are no relevant differences between dream recall in young adults and in the elderly.

Academic studies on claimed past-life memories

Did you know that most studies on claimed past-life memories were carried out mainly in Asian countries?

Empathy in couples

Understanding the adaptative functioning of couples is something crucial considering the harmful consequences of situations of domestic violence.

Choosing the usual or taking a chance?

We always choose the same route back home, but one day, alerted about traffic restrictions, we decide to risk an alternative route. What drives us to make this decision?

Dream and daydream: differences and similarities

Did you know that daydreams reflect events from the previous two days and “night” dreams resemble a fictional plot?

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 projects supported by the BIAL Foundation produced 1.457 indexed publications

Did you know that the research funded by the BIAL Foundation has resulted until April 2021 in the publication of 1.829 papers, 1.457 of which in indexed journals (in Scopus or Web of Science) and 1.238 in impact factor journals?

The Journal of Anomalous Experience and Cognition was recently launched

Did you know that the Journal of Anomalous Experience and Cognition, recently launched, is welcoming the submission of manuscripts? This scientific peer-reviewed journal links anomalous experience and cognition. The first one refers to unusual but not necessarily pathological experiences, such as mystical experiences, out-of-body experiences, and others. They can be spontaneous or induced and have life-changing effects. Anomalous cognition refers to rigorous multidisciplinary research that seeks to improve our understanding of psycho-physical interrelations, including the hypothesis that organisms can be affected by spatially or temporally distant stimuli - unmediated by the senses or reason - and that intentions can directly affect physical systems, as well as attitudes, beliefs, and other variables related to such claims. For any questions kindly contact the Editor-in-Chief, Etzel Cardeña, Ph.D., Thorsen Professor in Psychology.

How the brain controls certain actions?

Stephanie Rossit, lead researcher of project 184/14 - Decoding neural representations of human tool use from fMRI response patterns, funded by the BIAL Foundation, published the paper Hand-selective visual regions represent how to grasp 3D tools: brain decoding during real actions in the Journal of Neuroscience and discussed the subject in The Conversation UK. “Most neuroimaging experiments that investigate how tools and their actions are represented in the brain use visual paradigms where tools or hands are displayed as 2D images and no real movements are performed. These studies discovered selective visual responses in occipito-temporal and parietal cortices for viewing pictures of hands or tools, which are assumed to reflect action processing, but this has rarely been directly investigated. Here, we examined the responses of independently visually defined category-selective brain areas when participants grasped 3D tools (N=20; 9 females). Using real action fMRI and multi-voxel pattern analysis, we found that grasp typicality representations (i.e., whether a tool is grasped appropriately for use) were decodable from hand-selective areas in occipito-temporal and parietal cortices, but not from tool-, object-, or body-selective areas, even if partially overlapping. Importantly, these effects were exclusive for actions with tools, but not for biomechanically matched actions with control non-tools. In addition, grasp typicality decoding was significantly higher in hand than tool-selective parietal regions. Notably, grasp typicality representations were automatically evoked even when there was no requirement for tool use and participants were naïve to object category (tool vs non-tools). Finding a specificity for typical tool grasping in hand-, rather than tool-, selective regions challenges the long-standing assumption that activation for viewing tool images reflects sensorimotor processing linked to tool manipulation. Instead, our results show that typicality representations for tool grasping are automatically evoked in visual regions specialised for representing the human hand, the brain’s primary tool for interacting with the world.”

How stress affects social cognition?

The research team of project 72/18 - Temperamental influences on social cognition under stress, coordinated by Frederike Beyer, published in the journal Stress: The International Journal on the Biology of Stress the paper Regulating interpersonal stress: the link between heart-rate variability, physical exercise and social perspective taking under stress. “Social interactions can be stressful, especially if they involve provocation or ambiguity. At the same time, such interactions necessitate social cognition. The question thus arises how stress affects social cognition and how personality attributes modulate this effect. The aim of the current study was to investigate the link between emotional reactivity, physical exercise, and social cognition under stress. As a measure of social cognition, we used spontaneous perspective taking, i.e., the degree to which participants represented the mental state of another agent. Studying young female participants, we investigated how physiological regulation, measured through resting heart-rate variability, is related to spontaneous social perspective taking under stress, and to predicted anger in an ambiguous social scenario. When controlling for resting heart rate, vagally mediated heart-rate variability was negatively correlated with the effect of stress on perspective taking, indicating that good physiological regulation supports social cognition under stress. Further, participants who reported to exercise at least once a week showed higher perspective taking under stress than less active participants. Finally, we found tentative evidence for participants who exercised regularly to show reduced predicted anger in response to an ambiguous provocation. Our findings suggest that good physiological regulation and regular physical exercise support social cognition under stress.”

BIAL Foundation is seen as “Visionary”

Did you know that some of the researchers supported by the BIAL Foundation describe it as “Visionary”?

Prémio BIAL de Medicina Clínica 2020 distinguishes work on familial amyloid polyneuropathy, cancer and COVID-19

BIAL FOUNDATION DISTINGUISHES WORK ON FAMILIAL AMYLOID POLYNEUROPATHY WITH 100 THOUSAND EUROS PRIZE The “Prémio BIAL de Medicina Clínica 2020” has distinguished a team coordinated by Teresa Coelho, Director of the Neurophysiology Department at the Academic Medical Centre of Porto, for the work “A Paramiloidose em Portugal e no mundo: de doença fatal a doença crónica com qualidade de vida preservada” (Paramyloidosis in Portugal and the world: from fatal disease to chronic disease with preserved quality of life).

The beneficial effects of acceptance on psychological well-being

Antonino Raffone et al., reported some of the results of project Aware Mind-Brain: Bridging insights on the mechanisms and neural substrates of human awareness and meditation, supported by the BIAL Foundation, in the paper Acceptance, and Not Its Interaction with Attention Monitoring, Increases Psychological Well-Being: Testing the Monitor and Acceptance Theory of Mindfulness published in Mindfulness.

The impact of space and time on perception

In the scope of project 376/14 - Lateralisation of cognitive functions in the brain: Typical vs. atypical patterns, supported by the BIAL Foundation, Deborah J. Serrien e Michiel Spapé published the paper Space, time and number: common coding mechanisms and interactions between domains in the journal Psychological Research.

UK, Portugal and USA were the countries with most supported projects

Did you know that the United Kingdom, Portugal and USA were the countries with most research projects supported by the BIAL Foundation over time?

The BIAL Foundation has been present in 29 countries

Did you know that the BIAL Foundation has already supported 775 research projects from 29 countries? In the latest edition of the Grants programme for Scientific Research 2020/21, 3 countries joined the list - Denmark, Finland and New Zealand.

The effects of long-term meditation

The research team of the project Aware Mind-Brain: Bridging insights on the mechanisms and neural substrates of human awareness and meditation, coordinated by Antonino Raffone, published in Scientific Reports the paper Attentional and cognitive monitoring brain networks in long-term meditators depend on meditation states and expertise.

The neuronal basis of biases in monkeys

In the scope of project 117/18 - The neuronal basis of biases, supported by the BIAL Foundation, the research team led by Rubén Moreno Bote published the paper Prefrontal cortex represents heuristics that shape choice bias and its integration into future behavior in the journal Current Biology.

The quest of physiological markers for the experience of pain

Researcher: Elia Valentini - Department of Psychology & Centre for Brain Science, University of Essex Summary: The aim of this project is to improve measurement of the human experience of pain by investigating a combination of psychophysical and physiological responses during mild noxious stimulation. More specifically, we want to investigate how sensitive and specific to pain the brain oscillatory responses are. We use EEG as the main technique, but we are keen to collaborate with neuroscientists using fMRI, autonomic measures and brain stimulation as well as with computational neuroscientists. A clinical collaborator would also be very much welcome.

EEG investigation of hypnosis and decision-making

Researcher: Rinaldo Livio Perri - University Niccolò Cusano Rome, Italy Summary: I work in the field of hypnosis and cognitive neuroscience. In particular, I adopt the event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the effect of the hypnotic suggestions on sensory processing and cognitive performance. I am an expert in decision-making and proactive brain processes before the stimulus administration (e.g., the perceptual, prefrontal and premotor readiness during the expectancy stage). I could help colleagues to properly analyze the ERP signal in the pre-stimulus stage of processing. Also, I would be happy to share my EEG data for re-analyzing them in the frequency domain (e.g., wavelet or coherence analysis in the hypnosis research). Feel free to contact me for any question! More information on my papers: https://scholar.google.it/citations?user=-8e_V64AAAAJ&hl=it Possible collaborations: neuroscientist with experience in the EEG frequency analysis Email: perri.rinaldo@gmail.com

Transparent Psi Project - looking for collaborators

Summary: We are running a fully transparent, expert consensus-base multilab replication of Bem’s (2011) experiment 1. The project features state of the art methods to maximize transparency and study integrity. The study involves a computerized experiment taking about 20 minutes per session. Group testing is possible in a computer lab, no specialized equipment needed. Labs are expected to recruit at least 100 participants. Participants will be exposed to images with explicit erotic/sexual content in the experiment. No financial compensation is required for the participants. Data collection is expected to take place in the 2020 fall semester. Every material is provided for ethics/IRB submissions and data collection in English (translation of materials might be necessary by the collaborators). The study is pre-registered and the manuscript is accepted in principle for publication in the journal Royal Society Open Science. All collaborators who meet the minimum sample size criterion will get authorship on this paper reporting the results of the replication study. More information in the preprint: https://psyarxiv.com/uwk7y/ Indicate interest in the collaboration via the following form: https://tinyurl.com/tpp-labs With any question contact the lead investigator: Dr. Zoltan Kekecs, kekecs.zoltan@gmail.com

Cognitive control and learning

Researcher: Ignacio Obeso, Ph.D. / CINAC - HM Puerta del Sur Summary: The aim of our projects is to understand the behavioral and neural mechanisms used to learn how humans establish adaptive behaviour in changing contexts. More specifically, we want to decipher how stopping abilities are initially learned and later executed under automatic control. We use task-related fMRI, brain stimulation and clinical models to test our predictions in laboratory settings as well as online home-based paradigms. Possible collaborations: computational scientist Email contact: i.obesomartin@gmail.com https://iobesomartin.wixsite.com/cognitivecontrol