Euskara neurozientzia Laborategian:BCBL

Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (BCBL).

Language is the most unique human ability and involves complex cognitive processes. Reading and writing are the most impressive cultural developments of our civilization and are at the same time a major developmental milestone in each person’s life.

They fundamentally change the way a person interacts with their environment. However, despite the impressive technological and scientific advances of recent decades we have not yet unravelled the complexities of the cognitive processes involved in language and in reading and we still do not know the causes of some language disorders and reading disabilities and how to remediate them.

The BCBL carries out research using the most advanced techniques in these fascinating areas, with a special focus on bilingualism."



Manuel Carreiras, BCBL Director:(..)Gizakia Ilargira heldu da, eta oraindik ere ez gara gai zu eta ni hizketan ari garenean zer gertatzen ari den ulertzeko.Arazo konplexua da; hala ere, horretan dihardugu.



(..)Uno de los aspectos más destacados en la inauguración del centro que dirige el doctor en Psicología Manuel Carreiras ha sido el bilingüismo. La convivencia de dos idiomas tan diferentes entre sí, euskera y castellano, permitirá arrojar datos novedosos a la ciencia como consecuencia de esta excepcionalidad.


(..)Para ser pionero, hace falta contar con los métodos y la tecnología más avanzada en la disciplina. El BCBL, que tiene la sede en Miramón y que cuenta, además, con unos laboratorios secundarios en el Campus Universitario de Ibaeta, posee una Unidad de Resonancia Magnética de 3 Teslas, que obtiene imágenes tridimensionales de las áreas del cerebro que se activan ante los estímulos; una Unidad de Magnetoencefalografía, que registra la actividad magnética del cerebro al ejecutar tareas cognitivas; y el babyLAB, laboratorio que se centrará en el estudio del lenguaje en bebés de entre tres y 24 meses.

El proyecto Consolider “COEDUCA”, ha sido capaz de implicar a un grupo de científicos relevantes en torno a un programa de investigación interdisciplinar para abordar el desarrollo de dos habilidades cognitivas capitales con importantes repercusiones en educación: la lectura y la atención

Monkeys Control a Robot Arm With Their Thoughts

Two monkeys with tiny sensors in their brains have learned to control a mechanical arm with just their thoughts, using it to reach for and grab food and even to adjust for the size and stickiness of morsels when necessary, scientists reported on Wednesday.

Cortical control of a prosthetic arm for self-feeding

The researchers, from the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, used monkeys partly because of their anatomical similarities to humans and partly because they are quick learners.

How to Get Kids to Sleep More

Snooze or Lose

Overstimulated, overscheduled kids are getting at least an hour’s less sleep than they need, a deficiency that, new research reveals, has the power to set their cognitive abilities back years.

(...) The surprise is how much sleep affects academic performance and emotional stability, as well as phenomena that we assumed to be entirely unrelated, such as the international obesity epidemic and the rise of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. A few scientists theorize that sleep problems during formative years can cause permanent changes in a child’s brain structure: damage that one can’t sleep off like a hangover. It’s even possible that many of the hallmark characteristics of being a tweener and teen—moodiness, depression, and even binge eating—are actually symptoms of chronic sleep deprivation. (...)







(...)On average, children who sleep less are fatter than children who sleep more. This isn’t just in the U.S.; scholars around the world are considering it, as they watch sleep data fall and obesity rates rise in their own countries. (...)


(...)Convinced by the mountain of studies, a handful of school districts around the nation are starting school later in the morning. The best known of these is in Edina, Minnesota, an affluent suburb of Minneapolis, where the high school start time was changed from 7:25 a.m. to 8:30. The results were startling. In the year preceding the time change, math and verbal SAT scores for the top 10 percent of Edina’s students averaged 1288. A year later, the top 10 percent averaged 1500, an increase that couldn’t be attributed to any other variable.(..)


El Hormiguero