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”.

Maria de Sousa Award 2024: applications are open

Applications are now open for the Maria de Sousa Award 4th edition - 2024, promoted by the Portuguese Medical Association and the BIAL Foundation.

Nuno Grande Doctoral Scholarship 2023: applications are open

Applications are now open for the Nuno Grande Doctoral Scholarship 2023, worth €25,000. Candidates must, at the time of application submission, be enrolled in the Doctoral Program in Medical Sciences at the Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences (ICBAS). The applications are open until January 19, 2024.

How submovements are coordinated?

In the scope of the research project 246/20 - The hidden rhythm of interpersonal (sub-)movement coordination, supported by the BIAL Foundation, the research team led by Alice Tomassini studied the submovement coordination at an individual- and dyadic-level. Participants performed a series of bimanual tasks in coordination with a partner (dyadic task) or alone (solo task) and, in the latter case, with or without visual feedback. Data, presented in the paper The microstructure of intra- and interpersonal coordination published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, showed that distinct coordinative structures emerged at the level of submovements, as a result of feedback properties. Specifically, the relative timing of submovements (between partners/effectors) shifted from alternation to simultaneity and a mixture of both when coordination is achieved using vision (interpersonal), proprioception/efference-copy only (intrapersonal, without vision) or all information sources (intrapersonal, with vision), respectively.