Behavior News

June 15, 2024

Top Headlines

New Insights Into the Brain Regions Involved in Paranoia

June 13, 2024 — The capacity to adjust beliefs about one's actions and their consequences in a constantly changing environment is a defining characteristic of advanced cognition. Disruptions to this ability, however, can negatively affect cognition and behavior, ...

Fruit Fly Brain Shows How Simple Commands Turn Into Complex Behaviors

June 5, 2024 — Researchers have discovered how networks of neurons in fruit flies transform simple brain signals into coordinated actions. This sheds light on the neural mechanisms underlying complex behaviors for potential application in ...

Just Thinking About a Location Activates Mental Maps in the Brain

June 12, 2024 — Researchers found that mental representations known as cognitive maps, located in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex, are activated when the brain performs mental simulations of a navigational ...

Unravelling the Gendered Undertones of Narcissism

June 6, 2024 — Narcissistic tendencies are heavily shaped by our upbringing and are significant contributors to violence and bullying in adult relationships -- but the causes and outcomes are different for men and women. New research has uncovered significant ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:53pm EDT

Astrocytes Induce Sex-Specific Effects on Memory

May 30, 2024 — Scientists have uncovered the first evidence that astrocyte receptors can trigger opposite effects on cognitive function in male and female preclinical models. The findings point to astrocytes, brain ...

Benefits of Failure Are Overrated

June 10, 2024 — The platitude that failure leads to success may be both inaccurate and damaging to society, according to new ...

June 4, 2024 — A research team using a fruit fly model has discovered that even very mild, non-lethal head injuries early in life can lead to neurodegenerative ...

What's Going on in Our Brains When We Plan?

June 7, 2024 — An international team of scientists has uncovered neural mechanisms used in planning. Its results suggest that an interplay between the brain's prefrontal cortex and hippocampus allows us to imagine ...

Training Cognitive Control in Children Does Not Change Brain or Behavior

June 5, 2024 — Training exercises designed to improve cognitive control in children do not make a significant difference to their ability to delay gratification or to their academic achievement, nor do they lead to ...

Babies Use 'Helpless' Infant Period to Learn Powerful Foundation Models, Just Like ChatGPT

June 5, 2024 — Babies' brains are not as immature as previously thought, rather they are using the period of postnatal 'helplessness' to learn powerful foundation ...

Myelination in the Brain May Be Key to 'Learning' Opioid Addiction

June 5, 2024 — Scientists have found that the process of adaptive myelination, which helps the brain learn new skills, can also promote addiction to ...

Lighting Up the Brain: What Happens When Our 'Serotonin Center' Is Triggered?

May 31, 2024 — Scientists have studied the main source of serotonin in the brain -- the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN). By studying how activating the brain's ...

Tiny Worm Helps Uncover Long-Lasting Prenatal Effects from Amphetamines

May 30, 2024 — During pregnancy, the effects of therapeutical doses of amphetamine have been investigated on birth outcomes in humans. However, a thorough investigation of the mechanisms underlying the long-term ...

Research Finds Improving AI Large Language Models Helps Better Align With Human Brain Activity

May 28, 2024 — With generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) transforming the social interaction landscape in recent years, large language models (LLMs), which ...

Haiku May Shine a Light on Humans' Relationship With Insects

June 11, 2024 — Haiku poems have reflected humans' experiences in nature for hundreds of years, including observations of bugs and other wildlife. Recently, researchers analyzed which insects were mentioned the ...

Children's Visual Experience May Hold Key to Better Computer Vision Training

May 31, 2024 — A novel, human-inspired approach to training artificial intelligence (AI) systems to identify objects and navigate their surroundings could set the stage for the development of more advanced AI ...

Moving Beyond Cubicles: How an Active Workplace Design Can Drive Workers' Behaviors

May 31, 2024 — Activity-promoting workplaces could boost physical activity and reduce sitting time among office-based workers. Yet, there are several gaps in the existing literature on how workplace design shapes ...

Key Differences in Brain Development Between Autistic Boys and Girls

May 23, 2024 — A new study finds key differences in the development of the cortex between autistic boys and girls ages 2-13. The study found sex-specific changes in the thickness of the outer layer of the brain, ...

Brain Connectivity Patterns Differ in Infants at Familial Risk for Autism

May 22, 2024 — A study has found distinct brain connectivity patterns in six-week-old infants at risk for developing autism spectrum disorder ...

New Method for Diagnosing Sleep Disorders in Children

May 22, 2024 — Research has resulted in a new method of screening for sleep disorders in children. The tool, the first of its kind, allows health professionals to assess children for multiple sleep problems at ...

One in Two Children With ADHD Experience Emotional Problems

May 22, 2024 — Scientists have shown that problems regulating emotions -- which can manifest as depression, anxiety and explosive outbursts -- may be a core symptom of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ...

Seeing Not Just With the Eyes: Degree of Arousal Affects Perception

May 17, 2024 — The brain modulates visual signals according to internal states, as a new study by neuroscientists ...

Large Language Models Can't Effectively Recognize Users' Motivation, but Can Support Behavior Change for Those Ready to Act

May 16, 2024 — Large language model-based chatbots can't effectively recognize users' motivation when they are hesitant about making healthy behavior changes, but they can support those who are committed ...

B Cells Drive Responses of Other Immune Cells, and Can Be Modified to Prevent Multiple Sclerosis Symptoms

May 16, 2024 — B cells can control responses of myeloid cells through the release of particular cytokines (small proteins that control the growth and activity of cells in the immune system), challenging the ...

Unique Brain Circuit Is Linked to Body Mass Index

May 16, 2024 — Why can some people easily stop eating when they are full and others can't, which can lead to obesity? A new study has found one reason may be a newly discovered structural connection between ...

Access to Gardens and Citizen Science Helps Encourage Conservation Among Children, Study Shows

May 15, 2024 — Access to gardens and citizen science projects at school can help promote pro-conservation behaviour among pupils, a new study ...

Some Mice May Owe Their Monogamy to a Newly Evolved Type of Cell

May 15, 2024 — What makes the oldfield mouse steadfastly monogamous throughout its life while its closest rodent relatives are promiscuous? The answer may be a previously unknown hormone-generating cell. Scientists ...

Artificial Intelligence Tool Detects Male-Female-Related Differences in Brain Structure

May 14, 2024 — Artificial intelligence (AI) computer programs that process MRI results show differences in how the brains of men and women are organized at a cellular level, a new study shows. These variations were ...

What Makes a Memory? It May Be Related to How Hard Your Brain Had to Work

May 13, 2024 — The human brain filters through a flood of experiences to create specific memories. Why do some of the experiences in this deluge of sensory information become 'memorable,' while most are ...

Metabolism of Autism Reveals Developmental Origins

May 10, 2024 — Researchers have shed new light on the changes in metabolism that occur between birth and the presentation of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) later in childhood. The researchers discovered that a ...

Teens Who View Their Homes as More Chaotic Than Their Siblings Have Poorer Mental Health in Adulthood

May 8, 2024 — Adolescents who view their households as more unstructured, disorganized, or hectic than their siblings develop more mental health and behavioral problems in early adulthood, according to new ...

Sleep Resets Brain Connections -- But Only for First Few Hours

May 1, 2024 — During sleep, the brain weakens the new connections between neurons that had been forged while awake -- but only during the first half of a night's sleep, according to a new ...

Student Links Worm Behavior to Brain Disease

Apr. 30, 2024 — An undergraduate student turns her honor's thesis into a peer-reviewed publication on schizophrenia ...

Test Reveals Mice Think Like Babies

Apr. 26, 2024 — Are mice clever enough to be strategic? A neuroscientist who studies learning in humans and animals, and who has long worked with mice, wondered why rodents often performed poorly in tests when they ...