Behavior News

April 26, 2024

Top Headlines

Brainless Memory Makes the Spinal Cord Smarter Than Previously Thought

Apr. 11, 2024 — Researchers have discovered the neural circuitry in the spinal cord that allows brain-independent motor learning. The study found two critical groups of spinal cord neurons, one necessary for new adaptive learning, and another for recalling ...

Infected: Understanding the Spread of Behavior

Apr. 23, 2024 — A team of researchers found that long-tie connections accelerate the speed of social ...

A Common Pathway in the Brain That Enables Addictive Drugs to Hijack Natural Reward Processing

Apr. 18, 2024 — Researchers have uncovered a mechanism in the brain that allows cocaine and morphine to take over natural reward processing ...

Quick Decisions in Soccer Enhanced by Brain's Ability to Suppress Actions

Apr. 18, 2024 — Superior decision-making in sports such as soccer could come down to the process of inhibiting a motor response, according to a new ...

Latest Headlines

updated 3:18pm EDT

The Sense of Smell Is Influenced by Cues from Other Senses

Apr. 5, 2024 — The sense of smell is highly influenced by the cues from other senses, while the sense of sight and hearing are affected to a much lesser extent, shows a new ...

Nudging in a Virtual Supermarket for More Animal Welfare

Apr. 4, 2024 — It may be possible to change the purchasing behavior of consumers noticeably using some simple strategies. At least this is what a new study indicates. The researchers investigated the effect of ...

Prairie Voles Display Signs of Human-Like Depression

Apr. 4, 2024 — Researchers make the case that prairie voles, small rodents that are found throughout the central United States and Canada, can be effectively used as animal models to further the study of clinical ...

Large Language Models Respond Differently Based on User's Motivation

Apr. 3, 2024 — A new study reveals how large language models (LLMs) respond to different motivational states. In their evaluation of three LLM-based generative conversational agents (GAs)--ChatGPT, Google Bard, and ...

Developmental Psychology: Concern for Others Emerges During Second Year of Life

Mar. 27, 2024 — An empirical longitudinal study tracked the emergence of empathic concern in ...

Large-Scale Animal Study Links Brain pH Changes to Wide-Ranging Cognitive Issues

Mar. 26, 2024 — The International Brain pH Project Consortium unveils groundbreaking findings in a large-scale animal model study, indicating altered brain pH and ...

The Power of Neighbors: Neighboring Synapses Shape Learning and Memory

Mar. 21, 2024 — A researcher has developed a new model that provides a holistic view on how our brain manages to learn quickly and forms stable, long-lasting memories. Their study sheds light on the crucial role of ...

How Neurochemicals Affect fMRI Readings

Mar. 19, 2024 — A new study shows how neurochemicals can influence blood vessels. The findings may change how researchers interpret results from functional magnetic resonance imaging ...

Less Social With Age

Mar. 15, 2024 — Scientists tested several hypotheses on the drivers of social aging in free-living Assamese macaques in Thailand. The researchers collected data on the social behavior of females for eight years and ...

New Study Reveals Breakthrough in Understanding Brain Stimulation Therapies

Mar. 15, 2024 — Researchers show that non-invasive brain stimulation can change a specific brain mechanism that is directly related to human ...

Researchers Identify a Signaling Molecule in Neuroblastoma Immunosuppression and Aggressiveness

Mar. 15, 2024 — The MYCN oncoprotein plays a key role in starting, advancing and making it difficult to treat various human cancers. When MYCN is overactive, especially in high-risk neuroblastoma, the tumors become ...

How the Brain Translates Motivation Into Goal-Oriented Behavior, According to New Study

Mar. 15, 2024 — Hunger can drive a motivational state that leads an animal to a successful pursuit of a goal -- foraging for and finding food. In a highly novel study, researchers describe how two major neuronal ...

Sleep-Wake Rhythm: Fish Change Our Understanding of Sleep Regulation

Mar. 14, 2024 — Researchers have discovered that some fish -- unlike humans -- do not need orexin to stay awake. This molecule was thought to be necessary for normal wake and sleep rhythms in vertebrates. Humans ...

New Study Reveals Unintended Ethical Faultline in Team-Based Reward Systems

Mar. 14, 2024 — Employers who have introduced team-based rewards systems to foster creativity, collaboration, productivity and sales may want to look again at a system that new research shows can create an ...

Interactions With Dogs Can Increase Brainwaves Associated With Stress Relief and Heightened Concentration

Mar. 13, 2024 — Spending quality time with dogs reduces stress and increases the power of brain waves associated with relaxation and concentration, according to a new ...

Researchers Identify Brain Connections Associated With ADHD in Youth

Mar. 13, 2024 — Researchers have discovered that symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are tied to atypical interactions between the brain's frontal cortex and information processing ...

New Microscopy Tech Answers Fundamental Questions

Mar. 6, 2024 — A new tool captures data from an unprecedented 1 million neurons simultaneously, painting a much fuller picture of brain ...

Smoking During Pregnancy May Increase the Risk of Behavioral Disorders in Newborns, Predicts AI

Mar. 5, 2024 — Although several studies have linked smoking during pregnancy with neurodevelopmental disorders, the results of behavioral experiments in mice prenatally exposed to nicotine have been inconsistent. ...

Shining a Light on the Effects of Habituation and Neural Adaptation on the Evolution of Animal Signals

Feb. 29, 2024 — A new paper examines the possible effects of two properties of receiver playing fields documented in studies of animal psychology -- habituation and neural adaptation -- on the efficacy of mate ...

Continued Cocaine Use Disrupts Communication Between Major Brain Networks

Feb. 28, 2024 — New research provides new insights into the brain processes underlying cocaine addiction. The findings are crucial for developing new therapeutics and identifying an imaging marker for cocaine use ...

Addressing Societal Concerns of Genetic Determinism of Human Behavior by Linking Environmental Influences and Genetic Research

Feb. 27, 2024 — In a new perspective article, researchers underscore the importance of integrating environmental effects into genetic research. The authors discuss how failure to do so can perpetuate deterministic ...

Yoga Provides Unique Cognitive Benefits to Older Women at Risk of Alzheimer's Disease

Feb. 26, 2024 — A new study found Kundalini yoga provided several benefits to cognition and memory for older women at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease including restoring neural pathways, preventing brain ...

Uncovering Anxiety: Scientists Identify Causative Pathway and Potential Cures

Feb. 22, 2024 — Quick-acting targeted therapies with minimal side effects are an urgent need for the treatment of anxiety-related disorders. While delta opioid receptor (DOP) agonists have shown ...

Artificial Intelligence Recognizes Patterns in Behaviour

Feb. 21, 2024 — Researchers have created an open-source platform known as A-SOiD that can learn and predict user-defined behaviors, just from ...

'Movies' With Color and Music Visualize Brain Activity Data in Beautiful Detail

Feb. 21, 2024 — Complex neuroimaging data can be explored through translation into an audiovisual format -- a video with accompanying musical soundtrack -- to help interpret what happens in the brain when performing ...

Study Identifies Distinct Brain Organization Patterns in Women and Men

Feb. 19, 2024 — Researchers have developed a powerful new artificial intelligence model that can distinguish between male and female ...

The Brain Is 'Programmed' for Learning from People We Like

Feb. 15, 2024 — Our brains are 'programmed' to learn more from people we like -- and less from those we dislike. This has been shown by researchers in cognitive neuroscience in a series of ...

Live from the Brain: Visual Cues Inform Decision to Cooperate

Feb. 14, 2024 — By combining behavioral and wireless eye tracking and neural monitoring, a team of scientists studied how pairs of freely moving macaques interacting in a naturalistic setting use visual cues to ...

New Algorithm Disentangles Intrinsic Brain Patterns from Sensory Inputs

Feb. 14, 2024 — Scientists have developed a new machine learning method that reveals surprisingly consistent intrinsic brain patterns across different subjects by disentangling these patterns from the effect of ...

Great Apes Playfully Tease Each Other

Feb. 13, 2024 — Babies playfully tease others as young as eight months of age. Since language is not required for this behavior, similar kinds of playful teasing might be present in non-human animals. Now cognitive ...