The Science Park of the University of Valencia (PCUV), in collaboration with the Institute of Integrative Systems Biology I2SysBio (center joint CSIC-UV), congratulates its members this year with the conference “The Illusionist Brain” by Jordí Camí, director of the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB) and the Pasqual Maragall Foundation. The event will be held on Thursday, December 16 at 12:30 p.m. in the Marie Curie Auditorium. The speaker will be presented by Juli Peretó, member of I2SysBio, and will be closed by Juan José Borrás, director of the PCUV.

If you wish to attend, you must confirm your attendance by writing to comunicacion.pcuv@uv.es.

Knowing the relationship between magic and neuroscience is knowing how our brain reacts to what that has no explanation. This is the interesting topic that will focus on "The Illusionist Brain", the conference that will be given next Thursday, December 16 by Jordi Camí i Morell, a specialist in Clinical Pharmacology and professor at the Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona, ​​and who currently holds the general direction of the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB). The talk, through which the Universitat de València Science Park will congratulate the companies and research institutes that make up its innovative ecosystem on the Christmas holidays, will take place in the Marie Curie Auditorium. Organized together with the Institute of Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio), the dissertation owes its title to the publication 'The illusionist brain: The neuroscience behind magic' (RBA, 2020), a fascinating journey to investigate the mysteries of human cognition, attention processes, visual memory and perception.

Written jointly with Luis M. Martínez, neurobiologist at the Institute of Neurosciences of Alacant. (CSIC), the work unmasks the brain processes that allow the manipulation of our mind in the field of illusionism, although it also explains how these techniques are used in other facets of life, but without revealing any secrets. The authors explain how throughout the history of magic, specialists in this art have managed to access the "limitations" of our brain to be able to make us see that the impossible is possible, without perceiving where the trick is, even if we are next to the magician who is developing the games or routines.

In addition to being a member of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans and vice president of the Pasqual Maragall Foundation (for Alzheimer's research), of which he has been the promoter and first director among Between 2008 and 2020, Camí's activity has focused on the field of neurosciences (drug dependence, cognition), in addition to having explored fields such as bibliometrics, evaluation and scientific policy. Director of the Hospital de Mar Institute for Medical Research between 1985 and 2005, he has participated in the creation of new research centers (CRG, CMRB) and, in particular, the PRBB, which he founded and directs since 2005. Narcís Monturiol Medal from the Generalitat of Catalonia (2000), he has been, among others, a member of the Advisory Council of the Ministry of Health and the Bioethics Committee of Spain, and the first president of the CIR-CAT (Committee for Research Integrity of Catalonia). Interested in the intersection between science and politics, and also between science and ethics, Camí is attracted to the interests of the avant-garde artistic group Dau al Set such as creativity, surrealism and the world of magic and illusionism. He is an active member of the Spanish Society of Illusionism (SEI), promoting scientific studies on the neuroscience behind magic.

Source: PCUV