Behavior News

November 20, 2024

Top Headlines

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. The findings provide a targetable area for slowing ...

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 learning is facilitated by a unique social ...

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 new study offers compelling evidence that even ...

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 ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:01pm EST

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 ...

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

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

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 ...

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 ...

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

Nov. 12, 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, ...

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 ...

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, ...

Consistent Bedtime Linked With Better Child Emotion and Behavior Regulation

Nov. 11, 2024 — A consistent bedtime may be more important to a child's ability to control their emotions and behavior than the duration or quality of their sleep, according to a new ...

Memories Are Not Only in the Brain, New Research Finds

Nov. 7, 2024 — It's common knowledge that our brains -- and, specifically, our brain cells -- store memories. But a team of scientists has discovered that cells from other parts of the body also perform a memory ...

What Makes Human Culture Unique?

Nov. 7, 2024 — Why is human culture -- the shared body of knowledge passed down across generations -- so much more powerful than animal ...

Brain Acts Like Music Box Playing Different Behaviors

Nov. 6, 2024 — Neuroscientists have discovered brain cells that form multiple coordinate systems to tell us 'where we are' in a sequence of behaviors. These cells can play out different sequences of ...

Toddlers Understand Concept of Possibility

Nov. 4, 2024 — Children too young to know words like 'impossible' and 'improbable' nonetheless understand how possibility works, finds new work with two- and three-year-olds. The findings ...

Autistic Traits Shape How We Explore

Oct. 31, 2024 — People with stronger autistic trails showed distinct exploration patterns and higher levels of persistence in a computer game, ultimately resulting in better performance than people with lower scores ...

Meta-Learning of Motor Skills in the Dorsal Premotor Cortex of the Brain

Oct. 31, 2024 — Researchers have discovered that the dorsal premotor cortex serves a 'meta-learning' function, overseeing and regulating physical movements. Once believed to be limited to movement ...

Oct. 30, 2024 — In common marmosets, the brain regions that process social interactions develop very slowly, extending until early adulthood, like in humans. During this time, all group members are involved in ...

Cannabis Use During Pregnancy Can Impact Thinking and Learning Skills, Increase Aggression Among Children, Study Shows

Oct. 28, 2024 — As cannabis is legalized and is more accessible in various forms across the country, there is increasing concern among health care providers about potential impact on children. Researchers have new ...

'The Way to a Man's Heart Disease': Can Social Expectations of Masculinity Be Bad for Cardiovascular Health?

Oct. 25, 2024 — A new study found that higher levels of stereotypical male gender expression were associated with a decrease in reported diagnoses and treatment for cardiovascular disease risk ...

An Individual's Reward-Seeking Strategy Reflects Responses to Nicotine

Oct. 24, 2024 — Individualistic reward-seeking strategies predict responses to nicotine among mice living in a micro-society, according to a new ...

Study of Chick Peeps Could Improve Understanding of Animal Emotions

Oct. 24, 2024 — Understanding animal emotions has been a long-running question at the forefront of welfare studies, but a new study may hold the key to decoding the chatter. The answer involves two baby chickens and ...

'With a Grain of Salt': How Humans Learn from Others

Oct. 23, 2024 — When we make decisions, we are often guided by the opinions and experiences of those around us. Yet we actually have quite different preferences, tastes and goals. A research team investigated how we ...

Workplace Culture and Social Relationships Are Associated With Workplace Bullying

Oct. 22, 2024 — Workplace bullying poses a serious threat to employees' health and well-being. A study sheds new light on the impact of social relationships on workplace bullying. Focusing on the dynamics of ...

Butterfly Brains Reveal the Tweaks Required for Cognitive Innovation

Oct. 18, 2024 — A species of tropical butterfly with unusually expanded brain structures display a fascinating mosaic pattern of neural expansion linked to a cognitive ...

Researchers Use Genetics to Find Psychopathology Risks

Oct. 17, 2024 — Researchers are identifying behavioral, environmental and neural factors through which genetic risk for mental health problems is expressed in ...

New Study Highlights the Dangers of Handheld Cellphone Use Among Teen Drivers

Oct. 17, 2024 — A new study found a strong association between handheld cellphone use and risky driving behaviors among newly licensed teen drivers. The study used a smartphone telematics application to track the ...

Elucidating the Neural Basis of Reduced Sexual Receptivity in Female Mice During the Non-Estrus Phase

Oct. 16, 2024 — Researchers investigated the neural mechanisms underlying the behavioral transition from the sexually receptive estrus stage to the non-receptive phase, as part of the hormone-dependent behavioral ...

'Brain Endurance Training' Promotes Healthy Aging

Oct. 11, 2024 — A new study finds that brain endurance training (BET) can improve attention and executive function (cognition), as well as physical endurance and resistance exercise ...

A New Target for Anxiety Disorders

Oct. 11, 2024 — By generating mice with genetic mutations that disrupt the brain's TrkC-PTP protein complex, researchers find a key way that brain cells ...

In Studying the Mating Rituals of Fruit Flies, Scientists May Have Learned Something About How Brains Evolve

Oct. 9, 2024 — Researchers have identified how the architecture of brain circuits helps different species flexibly adapt to new mating signals across evolutionary ...

Extended Timing: How Neurons Encode Information on Timescales That Match Learning

Oct. 9, 2024 — New research has identified a key step in how neurons encode information on timescales that match ...