Doctor Pedro A. Valdes, deputy director of Cuba’s Center of Neurosciences, has been appointed member of the executive council of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM), at the congress of that entity held in Beijing.

This is the first time that a Latin American scientist is part of the board of the OHBM, the Prensa Latina news agency reported.

The island’s delegation held exchanges with specialists of several nations on Cuba’s experiences and advances in this field, as part of the program of the recent five-day meeting.

While referring to the significance of this appointment, it represents the culmination of a work initiated with the Latin American Brain Mapping Network, the coordination of which was assumed by Brazilian Edson Amaro Junior on the occasion of this meeting in Beijing, continued the source, adding that it was also an opportunity to achieve the integration of developing countries in this field of sciences that struggles against brain dysfunctions, responsible for
34% of useful life years lost by humanity.

On this occasion, with the attendance of 2,700 delegates, this annual congress’ sessions focused on the use of high field magnetic resonance to clear up the work of the layers of the cerebral cortex; the mapping of the activity of the aforementioned organ during social and economic interactions; and advances in the "Human Connectome" -the map of brain connections.

In this regard, China presented the Brainnetome (brain networks) International Project -that will link the macroscopic networks (connectome) with the genomic network-, which Cuba is part
of.