Behavior News

December 23, 2024

Top Headlines

Machine Psychology: A Bridge to General AI?

Dec. 19, 2024 — Artificial intelligence that is as intelligent as humans may become possible thanks to psychological learning models, combined with certain types of ...

Discouraged Zebrafish Help Reveal How Ketamine Works in the Brain

Dec. 17, 2024 — By taking advantage of a 'giving up' behavior exhibited by zebrafish, the ability to image the fish's entire brain, and a unique virtual reality system, a team of researchers found where ketamine acts in the zebrafish brain: at supporting cells ...

Elucidating the Neural Mechanisms of Stress-Induced Cardiovascular Responses

Dec. 16, 2024 — The lateral habenula is a brain region associated with behavioral changes and autonomic responses during psychological stress. Researchers at the University of Tsukuba have identified the involvement ...

Can Lab-Grown Neurons Exhibit Plasticity?

Dec. 16, 2024 — This bioengineering breakthrough has found a way to make neurons grown in a dish react just like the real ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:30pm EST

Brain Inflammation Alters Behavior According to Sex, Mouse Study Finds

Dec. 19, 2024 — Inflammation in the hippocampus -- the brain's memory center -- significantly alters motivation and behavior in mice, according to new ...

Naughty or Nice? Many Parents Rely on Threats to Manage Misbehavior -- From No Dessert to No Santa

Dec. 16, 2024 — When young children's behavior becomes challenging, many parents resort to threats -- from taking away toys to threatening that Santa will skip their ...

Sculpting the Brain (Without Chisel or Scalpel)

Dec. 10, 2024 — Researchers report that they have successfully tested a novel approach for teaching the human brain to learn through external manipulation and neural feedback -- what they call the 'sculpting' of ...

Antidepressants May Act in Gut to Reduce Depression and Anxiety

Dec. 11, 2024 — In animal studies, boosting serotonin in the cells that line the gut reduced anxious and depressive-like behaviors without causing cognitive or gastrointestinal side ...

Resolving Ambiguity: How the Brain Uses Context in Decision-Making and Learning

Dec. 10, 2024 — Life can be tricky. We have so many decisions to make. It's a good thing we have an orbitofrontal cortex and hippocampus to help us. These areas of ...

Antipsychotic Medications Don't Always Work the Way They're Supposed to

Dec. 5, 2024 — A study analyzed data from nearly 500,000 Canadian patients who lived in nursing homes across Canada between 2000 and 2022. It found that residents who were given antipsychotic medications showed a ...

New Brain Mapping Technique Reveals Insights Into the Brain's Higher Functions

Dec. 6, 2024 — A new way of mapping activity and connections between different regions of the brain has revealed fresh insights into how higher order functions like ...

Unlocking the Science of Sleep: How Rest Enhances Language Learning

Dec. 5, 2024 — Sleep is critical for all sorts of reasons, but a team of international scientists has discovered a new incentive for getting eight hours of sleep every night: it helps the brain to store and learn a ...

The Secret to Our Big Brains Might Be in Our Gut

Dec. 3, 2024 — Brain tissue is among the most energetically costly in the body, and as a result, larger-brained mammals require more energy to support brain growth and maintenance. Exactly which biological changes ...

Brain Stimulation Effectiveness Tied to Learning Ability, Not Age

Nov. 27, 2024 — A study reveals that the effectiveness of brain stimulation on motor skills is determined by an individual's learning ability rather than age, highlighting the need for a more personalized approach ...

For Those With CTE, Family History of Mental Illness Tied to Aggression in Middle Age

Nov. 27, 2024 — People who have chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) who have a family history of mental illness may have a higher risk of aggression in middle age, according to a new ...

Machine Learning Reveals Behaviors Linked With Early Alzheimer's, Points to New Treatments

Nov. 26, 2024 — Scientists used a new video-based machine learning tool to pinpoint otherwise-undetectable signs of early disease in mice that were engineered to mimic key aspects of Alzheimer's. Their work ...

Dopamine and Serotonin Work in Opposition to Shape Learning

Nov. 25, 2024 — Research shows that reward-based learning requires the two neuromodulators to balance one another's influence -- like the accelerator and brakes on a ...

Need a Landing Pad for Helicopter Parenting? Frame Tasks as Learning

Nov. 22, 2024 — Parents are much less likely to intervene when their young children are getting dressed or performing other simple chores if those tasks are framed as learning opportunities, according to a new ...

New Model of Neuronal Circuit Provides Insight on Eye Movement

Nov. 22, 2024 — Working with week-old zebrafish larva, researchers decoded how the connections formed by a network of neurons in the brainstem guide the fishes' gaze. The study found that a simplified ...

Snoring Linked to Behavioral Problems in Adolescents Without Declines in Cognition

Nov. 21, 2024 — Adolescents who snore frequently were more likely to exhibit behavior problems such as inattention, rule-breaking, and aggression, but they do not have any decline in their cognitive abilities, ...

Confidence Drives Feedback-Seeking Behavior: Insights Into Learning and Motivation

Nov. 21, 2024 — New research reveals how low confidence drives feedback-seeking, enhancing learning with insights for education and rehabilitation ...

Neuroscientists Discover How the Brain Slows Anxious Breathing

Nov. 19, 2024 — Scientists discovered a brain circuit that allows us to regulate voluntary breathing, which connects the brain's emotional and behavioral cortical area to its automatic breathing brainstem area. ...

How Children Learned for 99% of Human History

Nov. 19, 2024 — Unlike kids in the United States, hunter-gatherer children in the Congo Basin have often learned how to hunt, identify edible plants and care for babies by the tender age of six or seven. This rapid ...

How Cells Habituate

Nov. 19, 2024 — Up until recently, habituation -- a simple form of learning -- was deemed the exclusive domain of complex organisms with brains and nervous systems, such as worms, insects, birds, and mammals. But a ...

Researchers Discover New Cognitive Blueprint for Making and Breaking Habits

Nov. 19, 2024 — Cognitive neuroscientists have described a brand new approach to making habit change achievable and ...

National Poll: Some Parents Need Support Managing Children's Anger

Nov. 18, 2024 — Some parents may find it challenging to help their kids manage intense emotions. One in seven think their child gets angrier than peers of the same age and four in 10 say their child has experienced ...

Neural Mechanisms of Sleep-Dependent Motor Learning Revealed in New Study on Brain Injury Rehabilitation

Nov. 18, 2024 — Scientists reveal how sleep, especially naps, boosts motor learning after TBI, offering new insights into brain activity and rehabilitation strategies to enhance recovery ...

'Jekyll and Hyde' Leaders Do Lasting Damage, New Research Shows

Nov. 16, 2024 — Employees struggle when supervisors swing between good and bad ...

It's My Brain's Fault! Why Teenagers Make Often Unwise Decisions

Nov. 14, 2024 — Adults exhibit a general tendency to make better decisions than adolescents, and this improvement drives an increase in specific and more sophisticated choice behaviors, according to a new ...

Anti-Anxiety and Hallucination-Like Effects of Psychedelics Mediated by Distinct Neural Circuits

Nov. 14, 2024 — New research suggests that it could be possible to separate treatment from hallucinations when developing new drugs based on psychedelics. The anti-anxiety andhallucination-inducing qualities of ...

NeuroMechFly V2: Simulating How Fruit Flies See, Smell, and Navigate

Nov. 14, 2024 — Scientists have advanced their NeuroMechFly model, simulating fruit fly movement in the real world. With integrated vision and smell, NeuroMechFly v2 helps us understand brain-body coordination, ...

Stress Is Contagious -- For Animals, Too

Nov. 13, 2024 — What happens to animals when their friends are stressed? Is it possible to document the spread of stress within groups of ...

Debunked: Children Aren't Quicker at Picking Up New Motor Skills Than Adults

Nov. 12, 2024 — Contrary to popular belief, children aren't better at learning new skills than adults. Indeed, young adults seem to learn faster than kids -- but also tend to forget more quickly. Here, better ...

Adequate Sleep Significantly Reduces the Risk of Hypertension in Adolescents

Nov. 11, 2024 — Adolescents who meet the recommended guidelines of nine to 11 hours of sleep per day were shown to have a significantly lower risk of hypertension, according to a ...