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”.

Luís Portela was awarded the Medal of Honor by Vila Nova de Gaia

The chairman of the BIAL Foundation, Luís Portela, was awarded the Medal of Honor from Vila Nova de Gaia on June 20. The attribution act was carried out in a ceremony as part of the Municipality Day celebration.

What causes interference in short-term memory?

What causes interference in short-term memory? Looking to answer this question, John E. Marsh, principal investigator of the research of project 201/20 - The Control of Attentional Diversion: A Psychophysiological Approach, supported by the BIAL Foundation, carried out three experiments that explored the effects of changing-state vibrotactile sequences on short-term memory. The results revealed that short-term memory for a visual sequence is more disrupted by a changing-state vibrotactile sequence (alternating from one hand to the other) compared to a steady-state tactile sequence (presented to both hands simultaneously).

Neural activity in tactile width discrimination

Miguel Pais-Vieira, principal investigator of the research project 95/16 - Reward modulation of tactile stimulus processing, supported by the BIAL Foundation, published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience the paper Neurophysiological correlates of tactile width discrimination in humans. The research team aimed to describe general changes occurring in neural activity during the periods of tactile width discrimination and motor response and identify changes in neural activity that were relevant for the performance in the task within- and between-subjects. Tactile width discrimination was associated with changes in neural activity and connectivity in networks involving electrodes from fronto-temporo-parieto-occipital networks, mostly in theta, alpha, and beta frequency bands. Asymmetrical networks of electrodes were associated with tactile width discrimination performance within- and between-subjects.