Let us go into the matter of the dream. The anthropologist Maurizio Bettini tells us of a perennial fascination and the psychoanalyst Vittorio Lingiardi the enigmas of him. And neuroscientists collect live data, exploring the nocturnal worlds, suspended between the instantaneity of electrical impulses and the power of dream images. “Life is born at night” is the title of the investigation in the new issue of the monthly “Salute”, which takes us into the extraordinary complication of a reality that unites us. If we all know, more or less, why we sleep, who can answer the next question with reasonable certainty? Why do we dream?
A path of possible answers can be found in the pages of the monthly (on newsstands on Thursday with La Repubblica, La Stampa and the newspapers of the Gedi Group). The brain is today the most discussed and studied organ and continues to hide a kaleidoscope of secrets. The logic of the cluster of neurons that we have in the skull resembles the plot of a thriller and it is fascinating, a few pages later, after the dream dossier, to immerse oneself in Stefano Pluchino’s story. Neuroscientist, leader of the Regenerative Neuroimmunology Laboratory in Cambridge, Great Britain, reproduces brains in the form of organoids: mini brains, simplified by the standard, created from colonies of stem cells, and yet bioengineering miracles. So sophisticated as to reproduce nervous architectures and biological functions and able to show us what happens in our brains when they get sick and age: from the processes of neuroinflammation to the involution of senescence.
Reading “Health“, we travel into a scientific epic that concerns each of us: from the evolutionary functions of dreams to future anti-Alzheimer’s therapies, the knowledge of the body and the ego is being revolutionized in ways that elude the layman . The example is the “Human Atlases”, of which Pluchino speaks: very high resolution maps of organs and tissues, built from the hybridization of heterogeneous biological, hormonal and genetic information.
Multiple sclerosis, who can receive stem cell therapy?
by Anna Lisa Bonfranceschi
We begin to have a sort of 2.0 encyclopedia of the human body that opens up a new vision on the concepts of health and disease: a parallel world, engaging and disconcerting at least as much as the one we frequent in dreams.
Neurological diseases, new tools are needed to cope with the increase in cases
by Letizia Gabaglio
Speaking of dreams, this time with open eyes, summer pushes us to change. Imagining, for example, to become protagonists in some sports, identifying ourselves with the feats of champions and gold medals. The investigation on biorhythms and physical activity is an opportunity to test oneself in an intelligent way, discovering times and approaches, according to what specialists call the “Diagram”. It is the delicate relationship that is built between the organism, the activity of the muscles and the contribution of the mind. This is how the challenge to oneself allows us to achieve concrete results.
“Salute” accompanies readers and readers in a better knowledge of ourselves and has chosen the August issue to take stock of the catchphrase of every summer: supplements yes or no? The inordinate craving for pills and tablets is not always justified, as the latest report from the USA reveals. Advantages and dangers are equal. The first step is to avoid do-it-yourself, the second to see a doctor. In summer as in autumn, when we will come back to deal with the shadows of Covid. How? In many ways, explains director Daniela Minerva, starting with a universal form of common sense (too neglected) called “prevention”: we continue to wear masks and improve ventilation systems in closed environments.