View source for Maria Carmela Lico

{{short description|Italian-Brazilian physiologist}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = Maria Carmela Lico
| image       = Maria Carmela Lico.jpg
| alt         =
| caption     =
| birth_name  =
| birth_date  = 1927
| birth_place = Italy
| death_date  = {{Death year and age|1985|1927}}
| death_place = Brazil
| nationality = Brazilian (naturalized)
| other_names = Maria Carmela Licco
| occupation  = [[Physiology|Physiologist]]
| known_for   = Behavioral physiology
}}
'''Maria Carmela Lico''' or Licco<ref>{{cite web |url=http://neurotree.org/neurotree/tree.php?pid=28638|title=Neurotree Academic Family Tree |publisher=Neurotree|date=19 November 2009|access-date=18 March 2014}}</ref> (1927–1985) spent most of her research life as a [[Physiology|physiologist]] studying the neural mechanisms of [[pain]] at the Department of Physiology of the [[Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto]] (Brazil).<ref name=memorial /> Lico produced important insights on the descending control of [[nociception]] by limbic structures, specially the [[septal nuclei]].
==Biography==
Maria Carmela Lico was born in Italy in 1927, but soon moved with her family to Argentina.<ref name="Hoffman">{{Cite book | isbn = 978-85-88561-02-1 | title = Dor e conhecimento: Uma homenagem a Maria Carmela Lico | language = pt | trans-title = Pain and knowledge: An homage to Maria Carmela Lico | last1 = Hoffmann | first1 = Anette | editor1-last = Hoffmann | editor1-first= Anette | year = 2008 | publisher = Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto | location = Ribeirão Preto | editor2-last = Massimi | editor2-first= Marina | editor3-last = Menescal-de-Oliveira | editor3-first= Leda | work = Reflexões em torno da dor  }}</ref> During her childhood in Italy, Lico fell ill with an infectious disease that would later "weaken her immune system"<ref name=Hoffman/> and impact her ability to stand the effects of [[chemotherapy]], leading to her death in 1985.
In Argentina, Lico studied medicine and philosophy, simultaneously, at the [[University of Buenos Aires]]; however, Lico was unable to finish the latter course. Fascinated with the workings of the mind, Lico entertained the idea of following [[psychiatry]] as a field of practice during medical school, an idea that was abandoned after 2 years of clinical practice. Lico studied under Nobel laureate [[Bernardo Houssay]] at the [[Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental]], and defended her doctorate thesis on the action of neurohypophysarian hormones on arterial pressure in the frog. While endocrinology was the field which gave [[Bernardo Houssay]] his [[Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine]], Lico was more interested in neurophysiology, an area which, at the Instituto, was under the leadership of [[Miguel Rolando Covian]]. Since Covian had recently moved to the [[Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto]], Lico decided to move to Brazil and, in 1960, joined Covian at the [[University of São Paulo]] with the help of a [[Rockefeller Foundation]] scholarship.<ref name=Hoffman/>
In 1963, Lico was invited by Covian to join the faculty as a [[teaching assistant]].<ref name=memorial>{{cite book|last=Lico|first=M.A.|title=Memorial: Apresentado à Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto da Universidade de São Paulo para obtenção do título de Professor Adjunto no Departamento de Fisiologia|language=es|publisher=Ribeirão Preto: Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto|year=1977|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8LrptgAACAAJ}}</ref>  In 1970, Lico made a short visit to [[Yale University]], in the laboratory of professor [[José Manuel Rodriguez Delgado]], where she studied the behavior of primates, applying [[telemetry]] techniques to infer physiology-behavior relationships. In 1981, Lico applied for [[Academic rank#Brazil|full professorship]] at Ribeirão Preto, a position she held until she died of cancer in 1985.
==Research topics==
Maria Carmela Lico was interested in [[behavioral neuroscience]] since her undergraduate studies.<ref name=memorial/><ref name=Hoffman/> While her PhD research under [[Bernardo Houssay|Houssay]] focused mainly on [[neuroendocrinology]] and cardiac control &ndash; her first article was on a method for permanent aortic cannulation in toads<ref>{{Cite journal
| pmid = 13646222
| year = 1958
| last1 = Lico
| first1 = M. C.
| title = Method of permanent lateral cannulation of the aorta in toads
| journal = Revista de la Sociedad Argentina de Biologia
| volume = 34
| issue = 5–6
| pages = 147–51
}}</ref> &ndash; soon she joined [[Miguel Rolando Covian]] in the field of [[neurophysiology]]. As most researchers under the guidance of Covian, Lico was interested in a  wide variety of topics, and it has been said that her personal library &ndash; composed mainly of fiction and art books – attested this observation.<ref name=Hoffman/> Together with [[Venâncio Pereira Leite]] and [[Ricardo Francisco Marseillan]], Lico spent most of her time manually producing electrodes, canulae and other equipment necessary for the implementation of novel techniques. As recorded by [[Anette Hoffmann]]:
<blockquote>When I arrived at Ribeirão Preto in 1966, I had the opportunity to begin my scientific education participating in projects developed by Maria C. Lico and Miguel R. Covian. In those times, acute experiments, with anesthetized animals, were usual. The laboratory technician, Mr. Osvaldo Del Vecchio, a tailor by trade, performed surgeries with extreme competence. Maria C. Lico conducted experiments. Covian, who was the department head, was summoned to the experimental room only at the moments in which animals were subjected to the proposed experimental treatments. During intervals, which could take up to 30 minutes, Maria C. Lico dove in reading books &ndash; not on physiology, but fiction. By the time I met her, she read avidly the fiction from the Argentinian writer [[Julio Cortázar]], and practically ignored my presence in the room. She was fascinated by the adventure of discovery. Her curiosity was endless. She would allow herself to wander through the pathways opened during a given experiment when she realized something new could be discovered, even though this could lead to deviating considerably from the original research line. She did not publish lavishly. Certainly she would be rejected by lack of productivity at the contemporary university.<ref name=Hoffman/></blockquote>
Along with Covian, Lico studied pressor responses to the stimulation of [[septal nuclei]].<ref>{{Cite journal
| pmid = 5918593
| year = 1966
| last1 = Covián
| first1 = M. R.
| title = Blood pressure and respiratory changes by stimulation of brain septal area in rats
| journal = Acta Physiologica Latino Americana
| volume = 16
| issue = 2
| pages = 99–105
| last2 = Lico
| first2 = M. C.
| last3 = Rodrigues
| first3 = J. A.
}}</ref> During these experiments with anesthetized animals, Lico begun to observe that, as the anesthetic plane became more superficial, [[guinea pigs]] started to vocalize and move, which she considered objective signs of nociception. Lico observed that these signs were abolished by septal stimulation.<ref name="pmid6967610">{{Cite journal
| pmid = 6967610
| year = 1980
| last1 = MacAri
| first1 = M
| title = Nociceptive modulation in rats by chemical stimulation of caudate, septum and medial forebrain bundle
| journal = Physiology & Behavior
| volume = 24
| issue = 5
| pages = 833–7
| last2 = Lico
| first2 = M. C.
| doi=10.1016/0031-9384(80)90136-5
| s2cid = 1170487
}}</ref> Based on those observations, she conceived an experiment in which a [[noxious stimulus]] that was applied to the [[Pulp (tooth)|dental pulp]] did not produce nocifensive behavior when preceded by the electrical stimulation of the [[septal nuclei]].<ref>Lico MC, Hoffmann A, Covian M R (1969). Modificación de las manifestaciones objetivas del dolor por estimulación límbica em cobayo. ''Anales del IX Congreso del ALACF'', p. 139</ref><ref>{{Cite journal
| pmid = 4600424
| year = 1974
| last1 = Lico
| first1 = M. C.
| title = Influence of some limbic structures upon somatic and autonomic manifestations of pain
| journal = Physiology & Behavior
| volume = 12
| issue = 5
| pages = 805–11
| last2 = Hoffmann
| first2 = A
| last3 = Covian
| first3 = M. R.
| doi=10.1016/0031-9384(74)90017-1
}}</ref> A year before her first findings were presented at the annual congress of the Latin American Association for Physiological Sciences, Reynolds published his paper on the antinociceptive effects of [[periaqueductal gray]] electrical stimulation in rats.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Reynolds |first=D.V.|year=1968|title=Surgery in the rat during electrical analgesia induced by focal brain stimulation|journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]]|volume=164|pages=444–445|doi=10.1126/science.164.3878.444|pmid=4887743|issue=3878|s2cid=35243874}}</ref> These findings would pave the discovery of the [[nociception#regulation|endogenous analgesic system]]. However, while most posterior researchers focused on the role of the limbic opioid system in the modulation of pain, Lico studied the role of [[monoamines]] in other regions, including the [[area postrema]],<ref>{{Cite journal
| pmid = 4063551
| year = 1985
| last1 = Menescal-De-Oliveira
| first1 = L
| title = Inhibition of the response to pain by the action of serotonin and carbachol topically applied to the area postrema of conscious guinea pigs
| journal = Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research
| volume = 18
| issue = 1
| pages = 79–86
| last2 = Lico
| first2 = M. C.
}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal
| pmid = 605158
| year = 1977
| last1 = Menescal De Oliveira
| first1 = L
| title = Pain modulation in the adrenergically stimulated area postrema in the alert guinea pig
| journal = Physiology & Behavior
| volume = 19
| issue = 3
| pages = 359–64
| last2 = Lico
| first2 = M. C.
| doi=10.1016/0031-9384(77)90279-7
| s2cid = 29206872
}}</ref> the caudate and the medial forebrain bundle.<ref name="pmid6967610"/>
After [[James Reston]], while accompanying [[Richard Nixon]] in a trip to China, was subjected to post-operative [[acupuncture]] at the Anti-Imperialist Hospital in Beijing, Lico got particularly interested in how this technique could induce the activity of [[nociception#regulation|endogenous analgesic system]]. At first, Lico studied the effects of [[electroacupuncture]] on human patients. Later, Lico demonstrated that the perfusate taken from the paw of a rat which was subjected to electroacupuncture could reduce or abolish the cortical [[evoked potential]] elicited by a [[noxious stimulus]] was applied to the [[Pulp (tooth)|dental pulp]].<ref>{{Cite journal
| pmid = 4615762
| year = 1974
| last1 = Garcia Leme
| first1 = J
| title = Cortical potentials evoked by nociceptive stimuli: Their depression by a factor released during saphenous nerve stimulation in the rat
| journal = British Journal of Pharmacology
| volume = 51
| issue = 4
| pages = 491–6
| last2 = Lico
| first2 = M
| pmc = 1778068
| doi=10.1111/j.1476-5381.1974.tb09666.x
}}</ref> They were unable to identify the analgesic substance; by 1975, when Hughes and Kosterlitz described the potent analgesic effects of [[endorphins]], Lico and Garcia-Leme were convinced that the substance generated by electroacupuncture was an endorphin.<ref name=Hoffman/> At the end of the 1970s, Lico advised [[Renato Sabbatini]] and [[:pt:Isaías Pessotti|Isaías Pessotti]], both of whom would become important behavioral scientists in Brazil.
==External links==
* [http://www.worldcat.org/identities/np-lico,%20maria%20carmela/ WorldCat page]
* [http://neurotree.org/neurotree/peopleinfo.php?pid=28638 NeuroTree Info]
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lico, Maria Carmela}}
[[Category:1927 births]]
[[Category:1985 deaths]]
[[Category:Brazilian physiologists]]
[[Category:20th-century Brazilian women scientists]]
[[Category:20th-century women scientists]]
[[Category:Brazilian women academics]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of São Paulo]]
[[Category:University of Buenos Aires alumni]]