Relationships News

June 25, 2025

Top Headlines

Attachment Theory: A New Lens for Understanding Human-AI Relationships

June 2, 2025 — Human-AI interactions are well understood in terms of trust and companionship. However, the role of attachment and experiences in such relationships is not entirely clear. In a new breakthrough, researchers from Waseda University have devised a ...

Sustained in the Brain: How Lasting Emotions Arise from Brief Stimuli, in Humans and Mice

May 29, 2025 — Humans and mice share persistent brain-activity patterns in response to adverse sensory experience, scientists find, opening a window to our emotions and, perhaps, neuropsychiatric ...

Horses 'Mane' Inspiration for New Generation of Social Robots

May 29, 2025 — Interactive robots should not just be passive companions, but active partners -- like therapy horses who respond to human emotion -- say ...

Overimitation Begins in Infancy but Is Not Yet Linked to in-Group Preference

May 26, 2025 — A new study examines the emergence of overimitation in infants aged between 16 and 21 months to see if and how it is linked to social affiliation and other forms of imitation. The researchers found ...

When Doctors Skip the Numbers, Patients May Misjudge the Health Risks

May 26, 2025 — Doctors can better communicate health numbers and statistical risks to their patients. Decision psychology experts give five strategies for effective patient-physician communication on quantitative medical ...

Language Isn't Just for Communication -- It Also Shapes How Sensory Experiences Are Stored in the Brain

May 20, 2025 — Our ability to store information about familiar objects depends on the connection between visual and language processing regions in the brain, according to a new ...

Recessive Genes Are Subject to Darwinian Selection

May 16, 2025 — As a group, carriers of recessive disorders are slightly less healthy and have a reduced chance of having offspring. This disadvantage is greatest for carriers of a recessive gene for intellectual disability, and reflected in a shorter school career ...

Study Sheds Light on How Autistic People Communicate

May 14, 2025 — There is no significant difference in the effectiveness of how autistic and non-autistic people communicate, according to a new study, challenging the stereotype that autistic people struggle to connect with ...

Mapping a New Brain Network for Naming

May 13, 2025 — Researchers identified two brain networks involved in word retrieval -- the cognitive process of accessing words we need to speak. A semantic network processes meaning in middle/inferior frontal gyri, while an articulatory network in inferior ...

The Origins of Language

May 9, 2025 — Wild chimpanzees alter the meaning of single calls when embedding them into diverse call combinations, mirroring linguistic operations in human language. Human language, however, allows an infinite generation of meaning by combining phonemes into ...

Losing a Parent May Increase Children's Risk of Being Bullied

May 7, 2025 — A new study surveyed 21,000 children in China and found that the association between parental bereavement and school bullying varied by sex of the child and deceased parent, age when the death occurred, and geographical area. Adolescents in rural ...

Birds Form Bonds That Look a Lot Like Friendship

May 7, 2025 — A study of starlings in Africa shows that they form long-term social bonds similar to human ...

Latest Headlines

updated 12:17pm EDT

How You Handle Your Home Life Can Boost Work Performance, Shows New Study

May 27, 2025 — A new study shows that people who proactively reorganise their family routines -- such as adjusting childcare schedules or redistributing domestic responsibilities -- are more likely to demonstrate ...

Gorilla Study Reveals Complex Pros and Cons of Friendship

May 5, 2025 — Friendship comes with complex pros and cons -- possibly explaining why some individuals are less sociable, according to a new study of ...

How Is It We Feel a Sense of Agency Over Our Movements?

May 3, 2025 — The sensation of controlling one's body and things in the environment is known as sense of agency (SoA). Not only is SoA pivotal for tasks and well-being in everyday life, but its mechanisms have ...

Advancing AI for Diverse Applications in Manufacturing, Business and Education

May 2, 2025 — Large language models (LLMs) are at the forefront of artificial intelligence (AI) and have been widely used for conversational interactions. However, ...

'Explainable' AI Cracks Secret Language of Sticky Proteins

May 1, 2025 — An AI tool has made a step forward in translating the language proteins use to dictate whether they form sticky clumps similar to those linked to Alzheimer's Disease and around fifty other types of ...

New 'Hidden in Plain Sight' Facial and Eye Biomarkers for Tinnitus Severity Could Unlock Path to Testing Treatments

May 1, 2025 — Researchers have identified biomarkers for tinnitus severity in subtle facial movements and pupil dilation that can be captured on video recordings. ...

Gene Circuits Enable More Precise Control of Gene Therapy

May 1, 2025 — To help achieve more precise control of gene therapy, engineers have designed a new control circuit that can keep gene expression levels within a target range. The method could be used to deliver ...

Listeners Use Gestures to Predict Upcoming Words

Apr. 25, 2025 — In face-to-face conversations, speakers use hand movements to signal meaning. But do listeners actually use these gestures to predict what someone might say next? In a study using virtual avatars, ...

Awkward. Humans Are Still Better Than AI at Reading the Room

Apr. 24, 2025 — Humans are better than current AI models at interpreting social interactions and understanding social dynamics in moving scenes. Researchers believe this is because AI neural networks were inspired ...

New Precision Mental Health Care Approach for Depression Addresses Unique Patient Needs

Apr. 23, 2025 — Psychologists have developed a precision treatment approach for depression that gives patients individualized recommendations based on multiple ...

Adolescents Who Sleep Longer Perform Better at Cognitive Tasks

Apr. 22, 2025 — Adolescents who sleep for longer -- and from an earlier bedtime -- than their peers tend to have improved brain function and perform better at cognitive tests, researchers have shown. But the study ...

Novel Treatment Approach for Language Disorder Shows Promise

Apr. 21, 2025 — Neuroscientists have developed a new treatment approach for a language disorder that combines traditional speech therapy with noninvasive electrical stimulation of the brain. Brain stimulation helped ...

High-Tech Sticker Can Identify Real Human Emotions

Apr. 21, 2025 — Saying one thing while feeling another is part of being human, but bottling up emotions can have serious psychological consequences like anxiety or panic attacks. To help health care providers tell ...

Screen Time Surprise Under Grandparents' Care

Apr. 18, 2025 — New research has found that nearly half of the time American children spend with their grandparents involves interacting with or watching media on a screen. How that screen time is managed can ...

Finding Friendship at First Whiff: Scent Plays Role in Platonic Potential

Apr. 17, 2025 — Two women meeting for the first time can judge within minutes whether they have the potential to be friends -- guided as much by smell as any other sense, research on friendship formation ...

How Does Our Brain Regulate Generosity?

Apr. 14, 2025 — Are there areas of the brain, which regulate prosocial, altruistic behavior? Researchers have studied a very special group of patients and established that the 'basolateral amygdala' (part ...

Sleep Matters: Duration, Timing, Quality and More May Affect Cardiovascular Disease Risk

Apr. 14, 2025 — Healthy sleep includes multiple components, such as number of hours of sleep per night, how long it takes to fall asleep, daytime functioning and self-reported sleep satisfaction, and addressing ...

Hidden Potential in Multiple Disabilities

Apr. 10, 2025 — Using eye-tracking -- a technique for recording and analyzing eye movements -- a team has shown that individuals with multiple disabilities can improve their social and emotional skills. Although ...

Lip Sync: Study Reveals Gender Differences in Preference for Lip Size

Apr. 9, 2025 — Shifting cultural perceptions of beauty could drive 'lip dysmorphia', so psychologists tested the response of 32 people to altered images of lips to see how they responded. The results were ...

Even Under Stress, Male-Female Pairs Had Each Other's Backs

Apr. 8, 2025 — When faced with a potential threat, mice often freeze in place. Moreover, when two animals are together, they typically freeze at the same time, matching each other's periods of immobility. In a ...

Fear of Rejection Influences How Children Conform to Peers

Apr. 4, 2025 — The fear of rejection -- familiar to many children and adults -- can significantly impact how kids behave in their peer groups, according to new ...

Common Phrases, Not Fancy Words, Make You Sound More Fluent in a Foreign Language

Apr. 3, 2025 — Fluency in a foreign language is often thought to be about speaking quickly and using advanced vocabulary. However, researchers reveal that speakers who use common, everyday expressions sound more ...

Exposure to Air Pollution in Childhood Is Associated With Reduced Brain Connectivity

Apr. 1, 2025 — A new study has found that children exposed to higher levels of air pollution in early and mid childhood have weaker connections between key brain regions. The findings highlight the potential impact ...

PTSD Can Undermine Healthy Couple Communication When People Fear Their Emotions

Mar. 31, 2025 — Fear of emotions among couples with PTSD is associated with unproductive communication, according to a new ...

Classroom Talk Plays a Key Part in the Teaching of Writing

Mar. 27, 2025 — The way teachers manage classroom discussion with pupils plays a key role in the teaching of writing, a new study ...

Study Explores How Characteristics of Communications Networks Affect Development of Shared Social Identity, Group Performance

Mar. 25, 2025 — Researchers explored how the characteristics of communication networks in groups (i.e., density and centralization) affected the development of shared social identity and, as a result, group ...

ADHD May Be Associated With an Increased Risk of Dementia

Mar. 25, 2025 — An adult brain affected by attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity (ADHD) presents modifications similar to those observed in individuals suffering from dementia. These are the ...

Transition Point in Romantic Relationships Signals the Beginning of Their End

Mar. 21, 2025 — The end of a romantic relationship usually does not come out of the blue but is indicated one or two years before the breakup. As the results of a psychological study have demonstrated, the terminal ...

How Family Background Can Help Lead to Athletic Success

Mar. 20, 2025 — Americans have long believed that sports are one area in society that offers kids from all backgrounds the chance to succeed to the best of their abilities. But new research suggests that this belief ...

To the Brain, Esperanto and Klingon Appear the Same as English or Mandarin

Mar. 18, 2025 — New research finds the brain's language-processing network also responds to artificial languages such as Esperanto and languages made for TV, such as Klingon on 'Star Trek' and High ...