ENVELHECIMENTO E DEMÊNCIAS

O envelhecimento demográfico das populações e o consequente aumento de patologia neurodegenerativa, predominantemente ao nível da doença de Alzheimer, têm levado à priorização desta área. Integrada na visão de bem-estar preconizada pela Organização Mundial de Saúde, a área do envelhecimento, particularmente envelhecimento cognitivo e demências tem sido das principais áreas trabalhadas. 

MENTE, CÉREBRO E EDUCAÇÃO

PAIN RESEARCH

AIMS:

1. Development and validation of methods to better assess pain both on experimental and clinical settings:

• Focused Analgesia Selection Test (FAST)
• Pain psychophysical paradigms
• Pain questionnaires

2. Studying pain-related underlying mechanisms

• Cognitive mechanisms
• Cognitive pain modulation
• Emotional and social pain modulation
• Interoception

3. Translate the knowledge to community and health care professional and improve pain treatment and management

• Dissemination activities in the community
• Dissemination activities with patients Associations
• Education and therapy in chronic pain
• Seminars in posgraduate courses to health care professionals

IN SUMMARY, our current and future goals are:

To develop and improve methods that can allow better pain assessment and treatment and increase the knowledge about pain modulation and assessment mechanisms
To expose health care professionals and patients to recent knowledge in pain research
To contribute to personalized clinical care and reduce patients’ pain and suffering

EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

AIMS:

To examine the relationships between human behavior and mind. At the moment we examine these relationships in 4 main research areas:

• Sports and motor expertise and cognition
• Decision making and consumer behavior
• ICTs* and social, cognitive and mental health
• ASDs** and perceptual styles

* Information and Communication Technologies
** Autism Spectrum Disorders

HOW WE ACHIVE THESE AIMS:

By manipulating research variables to discover relationships between cognition and behavior. Some examples:

• Cognitive benefits and exercise types
• Cognitive benefits and exercise schedule
• Cognitive benefits and proneness for exercise in action observation
• In-group and out-group influences in consumer choices (the case of sports fans)
• Information and Communication Technologies and burnout
• Information and Communication Technologies and cognitive loss
• Alternative perceptual styles and social cognition in ASD

OUTREACH AND INNOVATION PROGRAMS:

We aim to translate these data to inform the community and healthcare professionals, via training programs, continued education courses and other outreach activities on the following themes:

• Rethinking exercise adherence strategies in sedentary populations
• Rethinking exercise policies in schools
• Rethinking social interaction strategies in ASD’s
• Rethinking strengths and limitations to ICT use
• Rethinking influences in purchase decisions

IN SUMMARY, our current and future goals are:

To investigate the links between behavior and mind via the experimental manipulation of variables. To deeply understand the vicissitudes of mind-behavior interactions and to inform the community of the implications of such knowledge.