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O livro “Bolsas de Investigação Científi- ca. Bursaries for Scientific Research 1994- 2014” contém informação acerca dos proje- tos concluídos e em curso, nas áreas da Psi- cofisiologia e da Parapsicologia, financiados pela Fundação Bial, de 1994 a 2012. Esta edição foi especialmente organizada para a comemoração dos 20 anos do Programa de Bolsas de Investigação Científica da Funda- ção Bial. A informação acerca dos projetos está dispo- nível em www.fundacaobial.com. The book “Bolsas de Investigação Científica. Bursaries for Scientific Research 1994-2014” includes information regarding the finished and ongoing projects in the areas of Psycho- physiology and Parapsychology supported by the Bial Foundation from 1994 to 2012. This edition was specially organized to celebrate the 20 years of the Bial Foundation Fellowship Programme. Information regarding the projects is available © COPYRIGHT Fundação Bial 2014. Os at www.fundacaobial.com. textos incluídos no campo Results são da res- ponsabilidade dos autores, aos quais estão Foi publicado em 1ª edição pela Fundação igualmente reservados todos os respetivos Bial com uma tiragem de 500 exemplares. direitos autorais, designadamente noutras edições em português, em traduções e, de It was published as 1st edition by Fundação uma forma geral, em reproduções, totais ou Bial with a print run of 500 copies. parciais, por qualquer outro meio. © COPYRIGHT Fundação Bial 2014. The Design gráfico / Graffic Design: authors are solely responsible for the content of Execução gráfica / Printed by: the texts in the item Results. All rights reser- Eigal - Indústria Gráfica SA. ved with respect to other editions in Portuguese Depósito Legal N.º / Legal deposit No.: language and in translation, and in full or 372794/14 partial reproductions, by any means whatso- ISBN: 978-989-8483-04-1 ever. ÍNDICE GERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS ÍNDICE GERAL / TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUÇÃO / INTRODUCTION ................................................................... 9 PROJETOS CONCLUÍDOS / FINISHED PROJECTS* 1994/95 ....................................................................................................... 15 1996/97 ....................................................................................................... 23 1998/99 ....................................................................................................... 40 2000/01 ....................................................................................................... 65 2002/03 ....................................................................................................... 108 2004/05 ....................................................................................................... 165 2006/07 ....................................................................................................... 236 2008/09 ....................................................................................................... 302 2010/11 ....................................................................................................... 362 PROJETOS EM CURSO / ONGOING PROJECTS* 2004/05 ....................................................................................................... 413 2008/09 ....................................................................................................... 414 2010/11 ....................................................................................................... 420 2012/13 ....................................................................................................... 429 INDEX ................................................................................................................... 463 * NOTA: O campo “Indexed papers” contém até três artigos, de entre os mais recentes, indexados nas bases de dados SCOPUS ou ISI Web of Science. NOTE: The item “Indexed papers” contains up to three of the most recent papers indexed by SCOPUS or ISI Web of Science databases. 5 INTRODUÇÃO INTRODUCTION The first twenty years The present collection of summaries of results sent to the Bial Foundation by the fellows of the projects concluded between 1994 and 2010 was prepared by Drs. S. Marinho, H. Topa, Assunção Júdice and Paula Guedes, at the request of the Board of the Foundation. We had two aims in mind: 1. Seeing and letting others see the projects the Foundation has supported in the fields of Parapsychology and Psychophysiology, separately (Parapsychology 175, Psychophysiology 223) or jointly (63) in a total of 461 projects. 2. From that observation conclude, or at least try to conclude, what improvements become obvious both in form of presentation of the results and substance of new fields to pursue. The twenty years between 1994 and 2014 The twenty years between 1994 and 2014 saw some notable moments in the History of Biomedical Research: the presentation of the Human Genome Project in 2000, the progress in imaging with the development of nuclear magnetic resonance, the appearance of a new infectious disease, the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and the discovery of the Human Deficiency Virus (HIV 1) as its cause, the introduction of specific gene modification in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells, the involvement of Helicobacter Pylori in the genesis of gastritis and stomach cancer, the involvement of the Human Papilloma Virus in cancer, to highlight a few acknowledged with Nobel Prizes between 2003 and 20081-4. In addition to the enormous advances in technologies that permit noninvasive brain imaging, significant advances have taken place in the Neurosciences, resulting not only form the understanding of how the brain functions in the context of the whole body but also from the possibility of introducing gene modifications in mice that permit the study of behavior, memory, neurodegenerative and cognitive diseases. The attentive reader will no doubt enter this collection wondering how such advances touched the researchers in the fields preferentially funded by the Foundation and as any reader of scientific literature will want to see the Fellows’ publications resulting from the funding attributed. The Form Each process includes starting and finishing date, the summary of the results sent by the Fellow (that can also be seen in the Foundation’s website), and three publications in indexed journals. In cases, where the Fellow asked for extension of the finishing date, results are not available (N/A), or the projects were included 9 INTRODUCTION under the section Ongoing, the projects funded in 2012 are not yet concluded and therefore no summary of results are available. It becomes evident as the reader goes through the collection that there is an extreme variation in the form of the presentations. That is not the Fellow’s responsibility but the responsibility of the Foundation that never gave detailed instructions of how the Summaries should be presented or how a list of abbreviations was necessary. Some more experienced researchers describe objective, methods, results, conclusions and list of publications, others do not. Because the teams and the addresses are always included, however, one can get some idea of the numbers of people and variety of countries that the Foundation touched with its funding: 301 Principal Investigators (PIs) over 1000 others involved in research teams from 27 countries. The content From the analysis of many projects it becomes also evident how the entry of techniques of imaging, electroencephalography and magneto encephalography in the fields funded by the Foundation, have transformed the possibilities of the questions and of some of the answers, when combined with things of the mind, such as for example meditation, personal or social behavior and more recently using animal models enabling to enter realms such as memory. But even the most sophisticated brain imaging techniques and the most advanced mouse or fly, or fish, molecular genetics will not help us to elucidate phenomena such as Psychokinesis or Telepathy or some of the other exclusively human phenomena approached by researchers in the field of Parapsychology falling in a kingdom that may not lie just within the brain, as some believe5. Caveat In an attempt to reconcile these various kingdoms I have recently felt the need to reread the book by Sir Peter Medawaron “The Limits of Science”6. Medawar shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for his work on immunological tolerance in 1960. The book was published in 1984. Medawar wrote then: “It is not to Science, therefore, but to metaphysics, imaginative literature or religion, that we must turn to questions to do with first and last things. Because these answers neither arise out of nor require validation by empirical evidence, it is not useful or even meaningful to ask whether they are true or false. The question is whether they bring peace of mind in the anxiety of incomprehension and dispel the fear of the unknown.” 10 INTRODUCTION As Member of the Board for the last 4 years I have come to see Parapsychology between the kingdom of Perceptive and Cognitive Anomalies as described by Ed May and the kingdoms of life beyond death and before birth as “main stream” Science, within its limits, has some difficulty in seeing them As the reader will find out it is admirable how many projects in parapsychology dare, however, to seek empirical evidence for isolated phenomena that undoubtedly take place. In experiments well controlled, in many instances results are presented that turn out to be, or not, significant statistically.