Javier Bernácer, ICS researcher: "It is a mistake to try to understand the brain outside the mental reality".
The fourth session of the "October with Cajal" series, promoted by the Science Museum of the University of Navarra, dealt with how the brain works and the relationship between mind and brain.
27 | 10 | 2022
Javier Bernácer, researcher at the Institute of Culture and Society of the University of Navarra (ICS), says that "we must give young people the necessary tools to see reality in a different way to the current one and to know how to study the mind and the brain in a related way". For the ICS researcher, one of the problems with mind and brain research is that neuroscientists focus more on brain diseases and not so much on interaction with the mind and, in the case of philosophers, they lack prior scientific knowledge. For Bernácer, the training of young people should be holistic: "It is a mistake to try to understand the brain outside the mental reality," he said.
He said this during the fourth session of the "October with Cajal" series entitled "Mind and Brain" -held at Civivox Iturrama and attended by more than 160 people- organized by the Science Museum of the University of Navarra to disseminate the figure of Santiago Ramón y Cajal.
The researcher also pointed out the main differences between the human brain and other animals, such as intellectual knowledge, aspiring to an objective truth, grasping absence, and being aware of our thinking.
The round table was also attended by Carmen Cavada, director of the UAM-Fundación Tatiana Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno Chair in Neurosciences, who gave an informative presentation on the peculiarities of the human cerebral cortex. Cavada, who focused his speech on trying to explain the differences between the human brain and that of other species based on scientific studies, pointed out that layers 2 and 3 of the cerebral cortex have a larger neuronal body and a dendritic tree with more branches and that this is closely related to IQ. "The greater the complexity and the greater the length of the dendritic tree the higher the IQ." In addition to the level of neuronal analysis Cavada also based his explanation on gene expression and specialization of the cortex.
Dr. Cavada ended her speech by paraphrasing Ortega y Gasset ("Science is learned ignorance") to assure that our reality is ignorance and that little by little we are acquiring new knowledge that is very relevant. The round table was moderated by José Luis Lanciego, researcher at Cima University of Navarra.
On the other hand, the "October with Cajal" series closed on Wednesday 26th with the screening of the film "The love story with the brain, by Marian Diamond", which was attended by more than 120 people.
