neuroscience

The corpus callosum is a structure that joins the two cerebral hemispheres and allows the communication of information between them. It is made up of a large number of nerve fibers that help the brain to coordinate mental functions that are distributed on both sides. Until now it has been said that the size of the corpus callosum was different between men and women, generally larger in them.

A region of the brain called the basal ganglia controls the routines and automatisms of our daily lives. Training this function helps us to acquire healthy habits.

Caring for a chronically ill person, such as an Alzheimer's patient, requires a great effort on the part of what we call their 'primary caregiver'. In Spain, the most frequent profile of caregiver is a middle-aged woman who has a family relationship with the patient, generally his daughter or his wife. These people dedicate a large number of hours a day to the care and supervision of the patient without finding, in many cases, enough moments of rest to recover from this situation of chronic stress.

We know that when we go a night without sleep it is more difficult for us to focus on difficult tasks and we have the feeling that remembering things is more complicated. Experts in the study of sleep have described its different phases, and have described that slow wave sleep is relevant for the consolidation processes of episodic memory. Consolidation is the phenomenon that allows memories to be fixed in long-term memory.

Since the concept of 'brain plasticity' made its way into the study of the nervous system, many scientific works have been carried out to find out the type of activities that are capable of producing the change in the structure of our brain or in its shape. According to statistics, 40% of Spaniards have played a video game in the last year.

Until now it was thought that dyslexics did not correctly represent the sounds they heard in the brain. However, new research has shed light on what happens in the brains of people with dyslexia. According to the researchers, the problem is not that the representation is poor but that the connections between the auditory and speech centers are not correct. Children with dyslexia (approximately 5 to 10 percent of students) have major problems to learn.

The widespread cliché that men cannot multitask could be scientifically based. A group of American scientists has discovered that the brains of men and women are structured differently, the first being more optimal in communication within the same hemisphere and the second, in communication between both.

Living in a poor environment as children modifies the brain and can lead to problems regulating emotions in adulthood, an American study has just confirmed. According to the authors, the key lies in the development of the amygdala, an area of the brain known for its role in controlling fear and other negative emotions.