Undergraduate academics Francisco Lumertz and Lucca Pizzato Tondo were two of the seven awarded with the Young Neuroscientist Raymundo Francisco Bernardes Award, from the Brazilian Society of Neurosciences and Behavior (SBNEC), the most important scientific society in the country. The category selects undergraduate students with works that deal with Neuroscience and Behavior themes. PUCRS students are also linked to the RS Brain Institute (InsCer) and were guided by the professor at the PUCRS School of Medicine and researcher at InsCer, Rodrigo Grassi.

The study Early environmental enrichment rescues memory impairments provoked by mild neonatal hypoxia-ischemia in adolescent mice , authored by the student of the 10th semester of psychology at PUCRS Francisco Lumertz, investigated, through experiments pre-clinical, if animals that experienced mild hypoxia-ischemia in childhood and then, during adolescence, went through an environmental enrichment protocol, they would be able to recover the damage that hypoxia caused in memory. Neonatal hypoxia-ischemia (lack of oxygenation in the brain) is responsible for a significant part of cases of cerebral palsy in newborns, and the test done by the academic was to see if the environmental enrichment, which is basically tools available to the animal so that he can explore the environment, he would be able to recover losses from the volume of the hippocampus. “We observed that animals that went through hypoxia-ischemia and then through environmental enrichment were able to rescue the memory impairments caused by hypoxia-ischemia”, evaluates Lumertz.

The academic says that winning the award was something unexpected and reinforced his desire to continue in the research area, mainly because he is a student of scientific initiation. “The result is a reflection of the guidance and support that Professor Rodrigo and the whole group gave me throughout the graduation”, he considers.

The other award-winning research was the Diffusion Neuroimaging Evidence for White Matter Impairment in Cocaine Use Disorder , by the 8th semester medical student Lucca Pizzato Tondo. The work is part of a larger study, carried out by the research group Cognitive Neuroscience of Development (DCNL), which Rodrigo Grassi is the coordinator. The academic's study considered a specific subject within the area of ​​neuroimaging, taking into account the impairment of white matter by cocaine users. White matter is the part of the brain responsible for connecting all brain regions. The student explains that the users participating in the research underwent the magnetic resonance exam at InsCer and, based on it, a specific sequence was performed to assess the integrity of this white substance. Among the results found, it has been reported that crack users have a diffuse impairment of all major tracts of white matter in the brain.

“It was a great privilege to present these data in front of great Brazilian neuroscientists”, said Tondo, who saw it as a great opportunity to show the work at a scientific event of such relevance in the country. The academic was also surprised and very happy to have been awarded the prize, mainly because it is a study that has been under development since 2018. “I was very happy to see this two year work being rewarded, even more as a student of scientific initiation . I am very interested in the area of ​​neuroscience and in the scientific and academic career, so it was a super stimulus ”, concluded Tondo.