One of the main challenges in treating psychiatric disorders is the ability to predict which treatment will work best. The Neuropsychiatry Unit at the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown is using a procedure called TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) to treat drug-resistant depression and to assess whether and how it could be used for personalizing patient treatment.

Sherlock Holmes is perhaps the most famous example of the power of inference – using indirect evidence to reveal hidden truths. Understanding the neural basis of this sophisticated cognitive skill has been a long-standing challenge for neuroscientists. Now, a clever experiment that comes in two flavors – human and mouse – offers a way forward with a promising set of results.

Illustration by: Diogo Matias.

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Thoughts, sensations, and emotions zap across the brain via a meshwork of fine nerve fibers called axons. Axon size is crucially important for general brain function as well as in certain neurological conditions. Experts have been striving to establish a means to non-invasively measure these fibers for many years. An international team of researchers has now developed a novel MRI method that manages to do just that.

Image credit: ommyvideo (pixabay.com)

The Champalimaud Foundation is pleased to announce that ProCAncer-I: An AI Platform integrating imaging data and models, supporting precision care through prostate cancer’s continuum, submitted to the Horizon 2020 DT-TDS-05-2020 topic, has been retained for funding with an amazing score of 15 out of 15 points.

“la Caixa” Foundation Junior Leadership call, an internationally competitive call aiming to attract and maintain internationally competitive researchers of any nationality to Portugal and Spain, has awarded six fellowships to researchers of 6 nationalities working at the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown (CCU), ITQB and IGC.

Food has something of a “magic hold” on us, as certain flavors and textures can pretty much dictate what we do. Just think about the spicy dish that keeps bringing you back to that remote Chinese restaurant, or the irresistibly creamy but expensive ice-cream at the Italian place on the corner.

But is it only your palate that controls your food choices? It may feel like it, but the answer is no. In fact, much of what is going on happens beyond the walls of your mouth, through interactions between your digestive system and your brain.

Henrique Veiga-Fernandes is the first Portuguese investigator selected for a CZI (Chan Zuckerberg Initiative) grant. The project, selected for the Single-Cell Analysis of Inflammation grant, comprises a team of three prominent scientists that will join forces to unravel neuro-immune interactions and their potential therapeutic contributions to pulmonary infection and inflammation.

For social animals, such as humans, being able to recognize the presence of a threat in the behavior of others could literally be a life-saver. Yet, animals do not instinctively know that when a group member displays freezing – one of the three universal defense responses – it means trouble. Now, new findings by the Behavioural Neuroscience Lab demonstrate how animals acquire this ability and identify the neural circuitry crucial for implementing it.

Photo: pixabay.

Scientists love asking questions… so to celebrate the National Scientist Day, we decided to turn the tables on them and ask them a few revealing questions in return!

Read the full Q&A here.

Illustration: Diogo Matias.

Unlike machines, the behaviour of animals and humans almost always has an element of unpredictability. Countless experiments have shown that our responses to the exact same challenge are sometimes faster, sometimes slower, sometimes correct and sometimes wrong.

In the field of neuroscience, this variability is often attributed to what is called “noise”. An ever-present “neural babble” that influences the way brains process and respond to incoming information.