On the wall opposite Alvaro Pascual-Leone’s birth house, on a street in Valencia where the now Harvard-based behavioral neurologist spent his childh

Mind-Reading and Neuroplasticity: In Conversation With Neurologist Alvaro Pascual-Leone

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2024-07-07 12:00:03

On the wall opposite Alvaro Pascual-Leone’s birth house, on a street in Valencia where the now Harvard-based behavioral neurologist spent his childhood, stands a marble plaque that reads: “In this house lived the distinguished researcher Santiago Ramón y Cajal, who began his histological work here.” In that house, the great scientist and Nobel Prize winner began sketching ideas that would later form the basis of his foundational text in the field of histology, “Manual de Histología normal y de técnica micrográfica.” Every time I see my friend Alvaro, I think about that serendipitous encounter.

I associate that connection with a powerful feeling I experienced some time ago at the Green Building on the MIT campus. One afternoon, a kind professor buzzed me into an office on the 12th floor to take a photo of the campus from the north face of that iconic skyscraper designed by I. M. Pei. Crossing a large office to reach the window, I had to maneuver around a beautiful hardwood table. With the photo snapped, I retraced my steps, transfixed on that table. “Do you know why we take such good care of it?” the professor asked with a smile. “Because on that very table,” he explained, “our great Edward Lorenz wrote the nuclear part of the theory of strange attractors and founded his Chaos Theory.” Science wonk that I am, I was paralyzed for an instant by emotion. Seeing my surprise, he explained that they’d left it exactly as Lorenz had it before he died.

Teenage Alvaro’s daily routine for years involved walking past the house of Ramón y Cajal. Could young Alvaro’s daily encounters with Ramón y Cajal’s house have subtly influenced his path? The idea, a sort of strange attractor itself, is intriguing. But who’s to say? I know it’s far-fetched, but the way it resonates with Pascual-Leone’s lifelong dedication to Ramón y Cajal’s work holds a certain charm. With that, let’s dive into a bit of a conversation he and I had earlier this year, which he kindly allowed me to share.