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Social cognition

Social cognition is the study of how people process social information, especially its encoding, storage, retrieval, and application to social situations. There has been much recent interest in the links between social cognition and brain function, particularly as neuropsychological studies have shown that brain injury (particularly to the frontal lobes) can adversely affect social judgements and interaction. People diagnosed with certain mental illnesses are also known to show differences in how they process social information. There is now an expanding research field examining how such conditions may bias cognitive processes involved in social interaction, or conversely, how such biases may lead to the symptoms associated with the condition.

It is also becoming clear that some aspects of psychological processes that promote social behaviour (such as face recognition) may be innate. Studies have shown that newborn babies, younger than one hour old can selectively recognize and respond to faces, while people with some developmental disorders such as autism or Williams syndrome may show differences in social interaction and social communication when compared to their unaffected peers.

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November 11, 2026

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A massive study of more than 120,000 older adults suggests that common osteoporosis drugs may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias by up to 24%. The surprising findings raise the possibility that medications already used to ...
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Scientists have discovered that sleep disorders are associated with structural changes in brain regions that control attention, decision-making, and emotions, potentially explaining why disrupted sleep can affect everyday thinking and behavior. The ...
A study of more than 17,700 US adults found that people who use cannabis in multiple forms have dramatically higher rates of daily consumption and addiction symptoms than those who stick primarily to one method. Nearly 67% of those who used almost ...
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A surprising new study suggests that an anti-aging drug could help protect people genetically predisposed to Alzheimer's disease. Researchers found that just four weeks of low-dose rapamycin improved ...
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