Behavior News

March 31, 2025

Top Headlines

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 how movement alters the brain's sensory ...

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 enlargement of 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 ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:59pm EDT

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 ...

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 ...

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 and ...

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 ...

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 developing ...

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 of ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Novel Research Shows Brain Connections Can Predict Future Substance Use in Adolescents

Mar. 3, 2025 — Adolescent substance use is a significant predictor of future addiction and related disorders. Understanding neural mechanisms underlying substance use initiation and frequency during adolescence is ...

New 4D Brain Map Reveals Potential Early Warning Signs of Multiple Sclerosis

Feb. 27, 2025 — Using an animal model of multiple sclerosis (MS), researchers have created a four-dimensional brain map that reveals how lesions similar to those seen in human MS form. These findings provide a ...

Nasal Spray Shows Preclinical Promise for Treating Traumatic Brain Injury

Feb. 27, 2025 — A new study suggests a nasal spray developed to target neuroinflammation could one day be an effective treatment for traumatic brain injury (TBI). By studying the effects of the nasal anti-CD3 in a ...

Associative Learning: Primary School Children Outperform All Other Age Groups

Feb. 27, 2025 — The ability to make the connection between an event and its consequences -- experts use the term associative learning -- is a crucial skill for adapting to the environment. It has a huge impact on ...

Researchers Challenge Textbook Ideas of How the Brain Specifies Movement

Feb. 27, 2025 — Using a novel system, researchers found that a part of the basal ganglia called the striatum is not involved in action selection as previously thought. Instead, the striatum and the motor cortex work ...

A New Path to Recovery: Scientists Uncover Key Brain Circuit in the Fight Against Cocaine Use Disorder

Feb. 26, 2025 — Imagine a future where the grip of cocaine use disorder can be loosened, where cravings fade, and the risk of relapse diminishes. A new study brings this vision closer to reality. The research has ...

A New Model Accurately Predicts the Movement of Elite Athletes to Catch the Ball in Parabolic Flight

Feb. 25, 2025 — How does a tennis player like Carlos Alcaraz decide where to run to return Novak Djokovic's ball by just looking at the ball's initial position? These behaviours, so common in elite ...

Impacts of Workplace Bullying on Sleep Can Be 'Contagious' Between Partners

Feb. 21, 2025 — Workplace bullying affects not only the employee's sleep but their partner's too, according to new research published ...

Like Human Brains, Large Language Models Reason About Diverse Data in a General Way

Feb. 19, 2025 — Researchers find large language models process diverse types of data, like different languages, audio inputs, images, etc., similarly to how humans reason about complex problems. Like humans, LLMs ...

How the Brain Balances Risk and Reward in Making Decisions

Feb. 19, 2025 — Research in mice identifies brain circuitry that supports certain reward-based ...

Even After Learning the Right Idea, Humans and Animals Still Seem to Test Other Approaches, Study Suggests

Feb. 18, 2025 — New research adds evidence that learning a successful strategy for approaching a task doesn't prevent further exploration, even if it reduces ...

Worm Study Shows Hyperactivated Neurons Cause Aging-Related Behavioral Decline

Feb. 13, 2025 — Researchers found that excessively activated neurons over time, rather than decreased neuronal activity, cause aging-related decline in brain function in ...

Researchers Identify a Brain Circuit for Creativity

Feb. 13, 2025 — Researchers analyzed data from 857 patients across 36 fMRI brain imaging studies and mapped a common brain circuit for ...

Mapmaking in the Mind: How the Brain Builds Mental Maps of the World

Feb. 12, 2025 — Researchers have systematically detailed, step by step, how cognitive maps form in the brain's hippocampus -- a region responsible for learning and ...

Adults Can Learn Absolute Pitch: New Research Challenges Long-Held Musical Belief

Feb. 12, 2025 — It's been a long-held belief that absolute pitch -- the ability to identify musical notes without reference -- is a rare gift reserved for a select few with special genetic gifts or those who ...