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”.

Does transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation modulate behavior?

Ruben Azevedo, supported by the BIAL Foundation in the scope of project 88/16 – The interoceptive self: Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation as a new tool to investigate heart-brain interactions demonstrated that the transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve could be an effective neuromodulatory technique to modulate cognitive processes and pupil size. The paper “Event-related transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation modulates behaviour” featuring these results was published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology

Luís Portela featured in the Journal of Scientific Exploration

Interview with Luís Portela regarding the launch of his book “The Science of Spirit” in the United States and the scarce international funding attributed to research in the area of parapsychology, considered a “frontier science”.

How brain circuits that support decision-making are altered by aging?

João Marques-Teixeira, supported by the BIAL Foundation in the scope of project 249/16 – Healthy aging and economic decision-making: Neuropsychophysiological examination of the affect-integration-motivation framework of decision-making in aging brain, demonstrated, through EEG, that with aging, there seems to be a change in affective processes and a preservation of integration and motivation processes.

Prémio BIAL de Medicina Clínica: applications until August 31

The 20th edition of the Prémio BIAL de Medicina Clínica, promoted by the BIAL Foundation, with the amount of €100,000, seeks to recognize an intellectual, original work on any freely chosen medical topic on clinical practice. Only work with results of high quality and relevance will be considered. The winning work will also be published as a book.

Grants for Scientific Research: applications until August 31

BIAL Foundation opens a new call of its Grants Programme for Scientific Research 2022/2023 in the areas of Psychophysiology and Parapsychology...

Luís Portela distinguished in the 25th anniversary of Vila do Coronado

Luís Portela, Chairman of the BIAL Foundation, was distinguished in the formal session of the commemorations of the 25th anniversary of Vila do Coronado, which took place on the 24th of July...

BIAL Foundation supports projects that link Psychophysiology and Parapsychology

Did you know that BIAL Foundation support projects that bridge Psychophysiology and Parapsychology and publish in journals such as Consciousness and Cognition, and Frontiers in Psychology?

The behavioral coordination at the submovement level

In the scope of project 246/20 - The hidden rhythm of interpersonal (sub-)movement coordination, Alice Tomassini et al. published in the journal iScience, the paper “Interpersonal synchronization of movement intermittency”, with the following highlights...

Is the human being able to assess the emotinal authenticity of non-verbal vocalizations?

Tatiana Conde e Magro, supported by the BIAL Foundation in the scope of project 148/18 – Voice perception in the visually deprived brain: Behavioral and electrophysiological insights, concluded that humans are able to assess the emotional authenticity of non-verbal vocalizations in early stages of emotional processing. Furthermore, the study showed that the assessment of emotional authenticity is faster in laughter than in crying. The paper “The time course of emotional authenticity detection in nonverbal vocalizations” featuring these results was published in the journal Cortex.

The neuronal representation of the use of tools

Stéphanie Rossit, supported by the BIAL Foundation in the scope of project 184/14 – Decoding neural representations of human tool use from fMRI response patterns, identified the neural representations of how humans typically use tools. Furthermore, the study demonstrated that these representations occur even when the performance of the task does not require semantic processing. The paper “The role of the anterior temporal cortex in action: Evidence from fMRI multivariate searchlight analysis during real object grasping” featuring these results was published in the journal Scientific Reports.

How does eye-contact affect the brain syncroninization?

Caroline Di Bernardi Luft, supported by the BIAL Foundation in the scope of project 138/18 – The neural signatures of leadership: Two-brain directed synchronization during eye-contact demonstrated that eye-contact affects the frequency and direction of brain synchronization, and that this synchronization differs between dyads. The paper “Social synchronization of brain activity increases during eye-contact” featuring these results was published in the journal Communications Biology.

Patrícia Teixeira Lopes is the new non-executive member of the Board of the BIAL Foundation

BIAL Foundation includes, for the mandate 2022-2025, Patrícia Teixeira Lopes as non-executive member of its Board of Directors...

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