Behavior News

February 27, 2025

Top Headlines

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 athletes, are ...

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 ...

How the Brain Balances Risk and Reward in Making Decisions

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

Latest Headlines

updated 10:59pm EST

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Scientists Discover Brain Mechanism That Helps Us Overcome Fear

Feb. 6, 2025 — Researchers have unveiled the precise brain mechanisms that enable animals to overcome instinctive fears. The study in mice could have implications for developing therapeutics for fear-related ...

Scientists Reveal Gut Microbes' Hidden Role in Anxiety: Could Probiotics Be the Next Mental Health Breakthrough?

Feb. 5, 2025 — Could the key to easing anxiety be hidden in our gut? Scientists have discovered a crucial connection between gut microbes and anxiety-related ...

Wealth Is Strong Predictor of Prosocial Behavior Around the World, Study Suggests

Feb. 5, 2025 — Wealthy people are more likely to engage in prosocial behavior such as donating money or volunteering, according to a new global ...

How the Brain Enables Flexible Decisions

Feb. 3, 2025 — Our brain is remarkably flexible in producing different reactions to supposedly comparable situations. The same sensory information can lead to different decisions depending on the behavioral ...

A Hearing Aid for ... Your Nose?

Jan. 30, 2025 — Scientists have discovered a feedback loop in the brain's odor center that seems to put smells and sounds into context. The feedback loop may help animals adjust their behaviors in response to ...

How Group Size Affects Cooperation: Insights from Brain Science

Jan. 29, 2025 — New research challenges conventional wisdom that larger group size reduces cooperation by showing that fluid connections and innate prosocial instincts enable humans to thrive in larger social ...

Rethinking Altruistic Punishment: New Experimental Insights

Jan. 27, 2025 — A research team developed a new experimental game to explore whether people avoid witnessing selfish behavior to evade punishing others or simply to avoid confronting unfairness. The study found that ...

How Your Brain Learns from Rewards Might Hold the Key to Treating Depression

Jan. 22, 2025 — Using computational models, the researchers studied how the brain's reward-learning system functions in those with depression, especially among individuals experiencing anhedonia, the inability ...

Violence on TV: What Happens to Children Who Watch?

Jan. 20, 2025 — Boys exposed to violent screen content in the preschool years were more likely to become antisocial and violent themselves a decade later, in their mid-teens, a new study ...

Insights Into How Populations Conform or Go Against the Crowd

Jan. 17, 2025 — Cultural traits -- the information, beliefs, behaviors, customs, and practices that shape the character of a population -- are influenced by conformity, the tendency to align with others, or ...

'Ding-Dong:' A Study Finds Specific Neurons With an Immune Doorbell

Jan. 17, 2025 — Neuroscientists have identified that the receptor IL-1R1 plays a critical role in enabling neurons to directly communicate with the immune system. The new study provides the most detailed mapping of ...

From Caring Touch to Cooperative Communities

Jan. 15, 2025 — An international research team concludes that gentle touch is not only good for mental health, but also for the evolution of ...

High Levels of Disordered Eating Among Young People Linked to Brain Differences

Jan. 10, 2025 — More than half of 23-year-olds in a European study show restrictive, emotional or uncontrolled eating behaviors, according to new research. Structural brain differences appear to play a role in the ...

How Electrical Synapses Fine-Tune Sensory Information for Better Decisions

Jan. 8, 2025 — Scientists have taken a major step in understanding how animal brains make decisions, revealing a crucial role for electrical synapses in 'filtering' sensory information. The new research ...

Study Links Gene Regulating Brain Circuit Formation to Autism and Seizures

Jan. 8, 2025 — A new study offers insights into how the gene neuropilin2 contributes to the development of behavioral changes associated with autism spectrum disorder and ...

Tiny Microbe Colonies Communicate to Coordinate Their Behavior

Jan. 8, 2025 — A new study reveals evidence of electrical signaling and coordinated behavior in choanoflagellates, the closest living relatives of animals. This elaborate example of cell communication offers key ...

Mixed Signals: How the Brain Interprets Social Cues

Jan. 6, 2025 — Researchers have found that smell and sound signals merge in the mouse brain's hearing center, influencing social behaviors like pup retrieval. The discovery may lead to a better understanding ...

Preclinical Study Finds Surges in Estrogen Promote Binge Drinking in Females

Dec. 30, 2024 — The hormone estrogen regulates binge drinking in females, causing them to 'pregame' -- consume large quantities of alcohol in the first 30 minutes after it's offered, according to a ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 house, a national poll ...

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 ...

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 ...