Being bilingual or multilingual has many advantages, but it comes with its disadvantages as well. Several experts exposed these pros and cons in addition to debunking a few myths about mastering many more than one tongue following the presentation of the book “Multilingües desde la cuna” (“Multilingual from the cradle”) by Anna Solé, which took place in Barcelona. But all the experts agreed on the importance of education from the very beginning of an child’s life.

Patricia Moreno | 1 june 2010

The treatments of chemotherapy and radiotherapy can affect the brain and impair cognitive functions. Although we need more evidence regarding the scope of this harmful effect, there are already studies that observe this association. Understanding the mechanisms by which it occurs and whether the neuroprotection may be effective for preventing it are two important research fronts that are open from now.

Patricia Moreno | 22 March 2010

"I don't like Mondays (*). I only did it to cheer up my day", said Brenda Ann Spencer on the 29th of January 1979. Hours earlier, from a window of her house, she had wielded the rifle that her father had given her at Christmas, killed two people and wounded nine in an elementary school in San Diego (California). She was 16 and totally surprised her father.

Ànnia Monreal | 8 March 2010

Music changes people, and quite literally: the musicians' skills correspond to specific features of brain activity. But this is not a surprise, neuroscientists have long known of any specialized task leaving its more or less subtle signature in the brain. More striking is a new American finding: the same brain areas involved in music perception and language are involved in tasks such as reading.

Mónica Salomone | San Diego | 25 February 2010