News
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An optimal decision-making strategy emerges from non-stop learning
2.6.2020
Unexpected results bring into question which decision-making strategies should be considered as optimal.
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National Scientist Day 2020
16.5.2020
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!
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Learning what’s dangerous is costly, but social animals have a way of lowering the price
12.5.2020
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.
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Champalimaud Investigator receives Award to explore how the immune and nervous systems control lung infection
29.4.2020
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.
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Follow your gut: Newly identified digestive-brain axis controls food choice
6.4.2020
We may try to consciously make good food choices, but our bodies have their own way of weighing in. A new study reveals a learning mechanism orchestrated by the digestive and nervous systems that leads animals to actively seek out certain foods. These results are a step towards understanding how eating-related disorders, such as obesity, occur.
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