{"id":25499,"date":"2025-03-14T15:07:35","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T14:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idibell.cat\/en\/?p=25499"},"modified":"2025-03-14T15:07:35","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T14:07:35","slug":"idibell-brings-neuroscience-closer-to-the-public-within-the-framework-of-the-brain-week-in-lhospitalet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idibell.cat\/en\/2025\/03\/idibell-brings-neuroscience-closer-to-the-public-within-the-framework-of-the-brain-week-in-lhospitalet\/","title":{"rendered":"IDIBELL brings neuroscience closer to the public within the framework of the Brain Week in L’Hospitalet"},"content":{"rendered":"

World Brain Week has arrived one more year at IDIBELL and L’Hospitalet with the help of Pessics de Ci\u00e8ncia to increase public awareness on the advances and benefits of brain and nervous system research. Promoted by the DANA Foundation (<\/span>Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives), <\/span>based in New York, year after year and during the second week of March, this initiative encourages the organization of a series of activities, workshops and talks so that everyone can learn about the brain, associated diseases and the latest discoveries made in the study of this organ.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This year, as part of the LHCiencia strategy, Pessics de Ci\u00e8ncia and IDIBELL have co-organised two of the proposals that were presented throughout Brain Week. Two researchers from the institute, Dra. Merc\u00e8 Falip, principal investigator of the <\/span>Neurological Diseases and Neurogenetics research group<\/span><\/a> at IDIBELL and head of the epilepsy unit at Bellvitge University Hospital (HUB), and Dr. Fran Jos\u00e9 L\u00f3pez Murcia, principal investigator <\/span>of the <\/span>Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology <\/span>research group<\/span><\/a> from IDIBELL and professor at the University of Barcelona (UB), held two conferences related to neurosciences. Both were presented to the general public, with free admission, filling the auditorium of the Sant Josep Cultural Center in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Understanding how memory works through the study of the brain with epilepsy<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On Tuesday, March 11, Dr. Falip spoke about the brains of patients with epilepsy and how studying it can help us understand how memory works. Epilepsy, due to lesions in the neurons of the cerebral cortex that can occur for various reasons, is a syndrome that is well known to the general population but is not always easy to diagnose or treat.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is very heterogeneous, and can have a wide variety of different causes, prognoses and treatments. For example, most patients can control epileptic seizures thanks to antiepileptic drugs, but between 20-30% need to consider the possibility of going through surgery due to the inefficacy of pharmacological treatment. In these cases, it is important to understand the functioning of the patients’ brains to avoid cognitive risks derived from the procedure (such as language and memory impairments).\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In this sense, knowing how the brain works with epilepsy has an added value for the entire population: “<\/span>The operations of epileptic people who had a lesion in the hippocampus of the brain have taught us how memory works. Before surgery, neurologists assess the functioning of the brain through MRI and functional tests<\/span><\/i>,” said Dra. Falip.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The complexity of neural communication: synapses and neurotransmitters\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A couple of days later, on Thursday, March 13, Dr. Fran Jos\u00e9 L\u00f3pez Murcia presented a conference on neuronal communication through synapses and neurotransmitters, and the diseases that can appear when dysfunctions occur in these communication points. Neurotransmission-based communication is an extremely complex phenomenon that occurs on a large scale among all neurons. As Dr. L\u00f3pez-Murcia pointed out, “<\/span>There are more millions of neurons in our brain than millions of stars in the universe, and each of them constantly receives and integrates excitatory and inhibitory signals. It is a continuous and large-scale communication. The balance between signals is always maintained and is necessary for certain brain functions<\/span><\/i>.”\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Given its complexity and immediacy, neurotransmission is especially difficult to study in the laboratory. Therefore, to try to study it optimally, to understand how neurons communicate with each other, and, above all, why and how they stop understanding each other in some diseases, it is customary to use mouse models that manifest the diseases under study. Apparently, <\/span>“Some pathologies appear due to mismatches between neuronal excitation and inhibition: for example, in schizophrenia or epilepsy there is excessive excitation, while in autism or Rett syndrome there is too intense inhibitions<\/span><\/i>,” explained Dr. L\u00f3pez-Murcia.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) is a biomedical research centre created in 2004. It is participated by the Bellvitge University Hospital and the Viladecans Hospital of the Catalan Institute of Health, the Catalan Institute of Oncology, the University of Barcelona and the City Council of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

IDIBELL is a member of the Campus of International Excellence of the University of Barcelona HUBc and is part of the CERCA institution of the Generalitat de Catalunya. In 2009 it became one of the first five Spanish research centres accredited as a health research institute by the Carlos III Health Institute. In addition, it is part of the “HR Excellence in Research” program of the European Union and is a member of EATRIS and REGIC. Since 2018, IDIBELL has been an Accredited Centre of the AECC Scientific Foundation (FCAECC).<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IDIBELL presented two talks on neuroscience research within the Pessics de Ci\u00e8ncia cycle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":25500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[267,239,301,188,304],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular-and-molecular-neurobiology","category-neurologic-diseases-and-neurogenetics","category-neuroscience-area","category-neuroscience-program","category-outreach-and-education"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2025-03-24 12:59:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/idibell.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/idibell.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/idibell.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idibell.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idibell.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25499"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/idibell.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25501,"href":"https:\/\/idibell.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25499\/revisions\/25501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idibell.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/idibell.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idibell.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idibell.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}