Carmen Cavada, professor of Anatomy Human and Neuroscience at the Autonomous University of Madrid, and one of the leading international researchers in this field area, considers that "the crisis is slowing down progress in the understanding of the brain and, at the same time, the achievement of useful remedies for neurological diseases such as Parkinson's or Alzheimer's". This is what she explained at the University of Navarra, on the occasion of a seminar organized by the group of research Science, Reason and Faith, which promotes the interdisciplinary study of questions related to the sciences, Philosophy and theology.

The research of this expert is focused on knowing how the brain is formed: "It is the task of humanity, to understand it better and better, and we can certainly prosper," she says. According to her, neuroscience, as a multidisciplinary and multifaceted science, currently has a multitude of open fields: "From a medical and applied point of view, the great challenges of neuroscience and medical science in general are to effectively address neurodegenerative diseases.

"It is essential," he adds, "to invest a lot of money and resources in these diseases, as has been done for cancer in recent decades; as soon as we are able to do so, we will surely see a return. As to whether they will ever be combated, the doctor says she is convinced that "we will manage to control them because there are many people in the world contributing knowledge".

Maintaining neuronal connections

subject As for the secrets to maintaining a healthy brain, Cavada stresses that the brain is kept active by carrying out many activities: both physical and cognitive and intellectual activities, as well as maintaining interpersonal and social relationships. "It has been demonstrated, after studying the brains of elderly people who have already died, that those who have developed greater intellectual activity throughout their lives maintain more connections and the length of the dendrites - neuron lengthening - is greater than in those people in whom the activity was less".

In the expert's opinion, "the important thing is to reinforce and maintain the existing neuronal connections, to avoid weakening them, because this allows us to preserve the knowledge and habits acquired throughout our lives". In this regard, she explained that, "in normal, non-pathological conditions, we lose neurons, the connections weaken. Thus, during the prenatal and postnatal stages, particularly during infancy, is when the loss is greater; later, still at development, especially during adolescence, many of the connections that were initially established are lost. This means that what is being done is an effective pruning for biology because connections that are not necessary disappear".

Later, "throughout adulthood and aging, there is still some loss, but not dramatic. In fact, in normal maturity and aging, not many neurons are lost, only some connections".