Behavior News

April 20, 2025

Top Headlines

Groundbreaking Study Uncovers How Our Brain Learns

Apr. 17, 2025 — How do we learn new things? Neurobiologists using cutting-edge visualization techniques have revealed how changes across our synapses and neurons unfold. The findings depict how information is processed in our brain's circuitry, offering insights ...

Primate Mothers Display Different Bereavement Response to Humans

Apr. 15, 2025 — Macaque mothers experience a short period of physical restlessness after the death of an infant, but do not show typical human signs of grief, such as lethargy and appetite loss, finds a new study by ...

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 of the limbic system) plays an important role in ...

A Visual Pathway in the Brain May Do More Than Recognize Objects

Apr. 15, 2025 — A new study questions the longstanding view that the visual system is divided into two pathways, one for object-recognition and the other for spatial tasks. Using computational vision models, researchers found the ventral visual stream, may not be ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:58pm EDT

The Brain Learns to Filter out Distracting Stimuli Over Time

Apr. 15, 2025 — The human brain can learn through experience to filter out disturbing and distracting stimuli -- such as a glaring roadside billboard or a flashing banner on the internet. Scientists have used ...

Gestational Diabetes Linked to ADHD in Children

Apr. 14, 2025 — A new study has found children born to mothers who experienced gestational diabetes (GDM) during pregnancy are more likely to develop attention-deficient hyperactive disorder (ADHD) and externalizing ...

AI Models of the Brain Could Serve as 'Digital Twins' in Research

Apr. 9, 2025 — In a new study, researchers created an AI model of the mouse visual cortex that predicts neuronal responses to visual ...

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 new ...

Molecules That Fight Infection Also Act on the Brain, Inducing Anxiety or Sociability

Apr. 7, 2025 — Scientists find the protein IL-17 that fights infection also acts on the brain, inducing anxiety or sociability. This adds to evidence that immune ...

Brain's Own Repair Mechanism: New Neurons May Reverse Damage in Huntington's Disease

Apr. 7, 2025 — New research shows that the adult brain can generate new neurons that integrate into key motor circuits, findings that may point to a new way to ...

Nurture More Important Than Nature for Robotic Hand

Apr. 3, 2025 — How does a robotic arm or a prosthetic hand learn a complex task like grasping and rotating a ball? Researchers address the classic 'nature versus nurture' question. The research demonstrates that ...

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 ...

Thirst and Hunger Neurons

Apr. 3, 2025 — New research shines light on how the brain interprets nutritional and hydration needs and turns them into ...

Study Reveals How Alcohol Abuse Damages Cognition

Apr. 2, 2025 — For the first time researchers demonstrate in an animal how heavy alcohol use leads to long-term behavioral issues by damaging brain circuits critical for ...

How the Brain Evaluates Rewards

Apr. 2, 2025 — Researchers have gained a new understanding of how the brain processes reward and risk information. Neuroscientists show how nerve cells in the so-called amygdala not only encode the probability and ...

How Did the Large Brain Evolve?

Mar. 26, 2025 — Two specific genes that evolve exclusively in humans jointly influence the development of the cerebrum. Researchers have provided evidence that these genes contribute together to the evolutionary ...

How Movement Affects the Way the Brain Processes Sound and Sight

Mar. 26, 2025 — A research team has uncovered a fundamental principle of how the brain prioritizes vision and hearing differently depending on whether we are still or in motion. The study provides new insights into ...

Study Identifies Shisa7 Gene as Key Driver in Heroin Addiction

Mar. 26, 2025 — Researchers have found a unique molecular signature and genes in the orbitofrontal cortex associated with heroin-seeking behavior. A preclinical rodent model implicated a gene called Shisa7 as the ...

Repetitive Behaviors and Special Interests Are More Indicative of an Autism Diagnosis Than a Lack of Social Skills

Mar. 26, 2025 — People with autism are typically diagnosed by clinical observation and assessment. To deconstruct the clinical decision process, which is often subjective and difficult to describe, researchers used ...

Could an Arthritis Drug Unlock Lasting Relief from Epilepsy and Seizures? Promising Results in Mice

Mar. 25, 2025 — A drug typically prescribed for arthritis halts brain-damaging seizures in mice that have a condition like epilepsy, according to researchers. If the drug proves viable for human patients, it would ...

New Rules for the Game of Memory

Mar. 20, 2025 — New research on the hippocampus, a brain area essential for memory, suggests that new rules of synaptic plasticity best explain how brain activity continually reshapes the way memories are recorded ...

Insomniac Fruit Fly Mutants Show Enhanced Memory Despite Severe Sleep Loss

Mar. 20, 2025 — Fruit fly mutants that have severe sleep deficits perform better at olfactory learning and memory tasks, according to a new study. The paradox of enhanced memory despite sleep loss could be explained ...

Brain Imaging Reveals Surprises About Learning

Mar. 19, 2025 — By revealing for the first time what happens in the brain when an animal makes a mistake, researchers are shedding light on the holy grail of neuroscience: the mechanics of how we learn. The team ...

Vocal Changes in Birds May Predict Age-Related Disorders in People, Study Finds

Mar. 12, 2025 — Neuroscientists have found a link between vocal changes and the aging brain in zebra finch songbirds, which could help lead to earlier diagnoses for disorders such as Parkinson's and ...

Dopamine Signals in Primate Brains

Mar. 12, 2025 — We're all familiar with Pavlovian conditioning, in which a reward-anticipatory behavior follows a reward-predicting stimulus. Perhaps you experience it yourself when passing a cafe or restaurant ...

Butterflies Choose Mates Because They Are More Attractive, Not Just Easier to See

Mar. 11, 2025 — A simple neural change alters mating preferences in male butterflies, aiding rapid behavioral evolution, researchers ...

Good Parenting Helps, but Has Limits Under Major Deprivation

Mar. 11, 2025 — Parenting skills can make a big difference in fostering a newborn's language acquisition and cognition, but there may be a limit to how far parenting can go to make up the challenges to ...

Decoding the Neural Basis of Affective Empathy: How the Brain Feels Others' Pain

Mar. 10, 2025 — A research team has uncovered key insights into how the brain processes others' distress. Using miniature endoscopic calcium imaging, the researchers identified specific neural ensembles in the ...

Humans Have a Long Way to Go in Understanding a Dog's Emotions

Mar. 10, 2025 — New research has revealed that people often do not perceive the true meaning of their pet's emotions and can misread their dog. The reasons for this are many and include a human misunderstanding ...

Memory Is Impaired in Aged Rats After 3 Days of High-Fat Eating

Mar. 6, 2025 — Just a few days of eating a diet high in saturated fat could be enough to cause memory problems and related brain inflammation in older adults, a new study in rats ...

Why Some Are More Susceptible to Developing PTSD Symptoms Than Others

Mar. 5, 2025 — People with a more active amygdala (an area in the brain involved in processing information relevant to threats) are more likely to develop PTSD symptoms after experiencing trauma than people with a ...

Should I Stay or Should I Go? Brain Switchboard Found

Mar. 5, 2025 — Researchers have revealed neural circuits in the brainstem that are crucially involved in implementing decisions by controlling three fundamental behavioral states or strategies: perseverance, ...

New Research Shows Impact of Anxiety and Apathy on Decision-Making

Mar. 4, 2025 — New research has uncovered that anxiety and apathy -- two common but distinct emotional states -- lead to fundamentally different patterns in how people learn and make ...

Don't Let This Stress You out

Mar. 3, 2025 — Having one traumatic experience is bad enough. If you've constantly experienced stress since before birth, you may be in for an especially tough time. Our emotions may be influenced by ...