Articles tagged with Behavioral Neuroscience
Researchers found that rhesus macaques with more grooming partners had larger brain areas for social decision-making and empathy, specifically the mid–superior temporal sulcus (STS) and ventral-dysgranular insula. The study suggests that social connections influence brain structure in nonhuman primates, with possible implications for h...
A kindness training program adapted from Children's Kindness Network improves both parents' resilience and children's empathy. The study found that teaching kindness at home boosts parental resilience and enhances emotional intelligence in preschoolers, supporting overall brain health.
A new study published in Memory & Cognition found that eyewitnesses do not systematically bias towards selecting people with threatening facial characteristics or muscular bodies. However, participants showed highest identification accuracy for the most threatening body stimuli high in musculature.
A new study by UC San Francisco and Imperial College London found that psilocybin therapy reduces connections within brain areas tightly connected in depression, while increasing connections to other regions. This leads to improved depressive symptoms and better cognitive functioning in participants.
A study by Tokyo University of Science researchers used WCNs with increasing n values to find features of language that cannot be analyzed using existing WCNs. They found important features in networks with more than three co-occurrences, independent of text data.
Researchers have developed a new MRI technique that captures the brain's function during normal behavior, revealing its activities on a scale previously unknown. This 'time-lapse' imaging method, called manganese-enhanced MRI (MEMRI), uses manganese as a contrast agent to highlight brain cell activity and neural projections.
A global survey found that podcast listeners tend to be more open-minded and intellectually curious than non-listeners. The study aimed to understand motivations and outcomes of podcast listening, revealing positive effects on mental health and well-being.
Scientists at Johannes Gutenberg University discovered that fruit fly eyes can distinguish six types of global motion patterns generated by self-motion. The T4/T5 cell subtypes directly represent complex motion cues rather than uniform directions, matching the fly's actual behavior closely.
Neurobiologist Marion Silies is investigating how various visual systems adapt to specific environments and behavioral conditions. She will use fruit flies as an animal model to understand visual processing mechanisms and their adaptation to differing conditions.
Research team at University of Münster finds that a specific gene variant allows fruit flies to synchronize their circadian rhythm with temperature cycles under constant light. This adaptation enables better mating opportunities and increases the allele's evolutionary success.
Research reveals that people who grew up in rural areas have a better sense of direction than those in cities, especially in countries with complex topographies. The study used video game data from Sea Hero Quest to analyze over 400,000 participants from 38 countries.
Researchers are combining optogenetics and fMRI to study the links between brain activity and behavior. This hybrid approach allows for targeted manipulation and monitoring of brain function in awake and behaving rodents, providing valuable insights into neural mechanisms.
A study led by UCLA Health scientists finds that highly creative people's brains exhibit an atypical approach to connectivity, enabling them to bypass traditional hubs and form distant connections. This 'road less traveled' pattern is more efficient for creative thinking but may not be optimal in all situations.
Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have discovered that the brain region responsible for social behavior, the locus coeruleus, is activated precisely when a mother retrieves her pup. This finding could help reveal causes of disorders such as depression, anxiety, and autism, leading to potential new treatments.
The Mini2P allows for live imaging of thousands of neurons, recording complex behavior and cognitive functions in a naturally behaving animal. By mapping neural landscapes across the cortex, researchers can gain insights into high-resolution brain activity and function.
A study published by Boston University researchers reveals that social interactions can activate vivid memories and elicit emotional responses. The study found that animals' fear memories were enhanced by observing a stressed cage mate, but not by direct physical interaction.
A study by Salk researchers has identified an area of the brain responsible for encoding social rank in mammals, including mice. The discovery sheds light on how the brain represents social hierarchy and its impact on behavior, particularly in competitive situations.
Researchers at Duke University found a collection of coordinated brain regions that predict and direct social behavior in mice. By analyzing the electrical activity of these regions, they identified how social or solitary an individual mouse is and were able to prompt them to be more gregarious. This study may lead to better diagnostic...
Research at Simon Fraser University found that sharks produce a lower metabolic rate and recumbent body posture when inactive for longer periods, supporting the idea that they sleep to conserve energy. This is the first physiological evidence of sleep among elasmobranchs, a fish group including sharks, rays, and skates.
Researchers identify a neural circuit in midbrain, thalamus, and cortex that orchestrates neuronal activity to trigger planned movement. The discovery has important clinical implications for motor disorders like Parkinson's disease.
A new study reveals that genes inherited from moms and dads play distinct roles in shaping behavior, with certain cells relying on the mother's copy of a gene to produce essential neurotransmitters. This discovery has implications for understanding how parental genetics may influence behavior and related health conditions.
Worms use cost-benefit calculations to choose between different actions, similar to vertebrates. The study demonstrates that complex decision-making capabilities can be encoded in small biological networks.
A new study by EPFL researchers finds that stress during early adolescence leads to increased body fat and reduced sociability in males, but not females. The researchers identified a biological link between stress-induced fat gain and impaired brain function, specifically the NAD+/Sirtuin-1 pathway.
Researchers from Tel Aviv University found that hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) relieves PTSD symptoms in treatment-resistant veterans, improving brain function and microstructure. The breakthrough study provides new hope for PTSD sufferers, offering an objective diagnostic tool and potential long-term improvements.
Researchers developed behavioral task for rats to press lever within 3.2 seconds, earning rewards based on accuracy. Rats chose correct feeder based on temporal error, showing 'error monitoring' ability.
Researchers from Washington State University found that the optimal time of day for different cognitive tasks does not differ based on task type. Participants who felt sleepy should consider postponing important tasks until a later time to avoid performance impairment.
A Caltech-led team of researchers discovered that a bacterial metabolite can travel to the brain and alter its function, leading to increased anxiety in mice. The study provides a molecular explanation for recent observations linking gut microbiome changes to complex emotional behaviors.
Chronic pain may lead to changed eating behavior and obesity due to altered brain responses to sugar and fat. Brain scans reveal a smaller nucleus accumbens in patients with chronic pain who experience disrupted satiety signals.
Researchers found that archerfish can recognize unfamiliar insects as animals based on six essential features. The fish use these features, including shape and texture, to distinguish between animals and plants, similar to human face recognition strategies.
Researchers identified Dh31, a signaling molecule released from the fly's gastrointestinal tract, which switches focus from eating to mating. The study provides mechanistic explanation for how Dh31 acts on brain to change motivational drive of critical behaviors.
A new study published in Nature Communications found that amylin peptide plays a crucial role in regulating social contact-seeking behavior in female mice. The researchers discovered that isolation leads to a decrease in amylin levels, while social reunion increases them.
Researchers found lower functional connectivity between brain areas involved in social and emotional processing in individuals at risk of developing alcohol use disorder. This impairment may affect their ability to interpret facial expressions and respond to their environment, increasing the likelihood of disordered drinking.
Researchers at Osnabrück University observe chimpanzees applying insects to their own and others' wounds, sparking interest in potential anti-inflammatory or antiseptic properties. The team aims to investigate the social dimension of this behavior and its possible transmission through social learning.
A study by the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience has identified a new neural mechanism of habit formation, showing that striatal dopamine signals are region-specific and temporally stable across action-sequence habit formation. This finding challenges traditional theories on dopamine signaling in habit development.
A recent study published in Frontiers in Psychology found that women score higher on compassion-related items and self-reflection, whereas men score higher on cognitive-related items and emotional regulation. Both genders demonstrated an association with increased mental well-being and resilience.
Researchers found that REM sleep has specific properties allowing rapid arousal in response to predatory stimuli. The medial subthalamic nucleus (mSTN) plays a key role in this process, producing a lowered arousal threshold during REM sleep for detecting predator threats.
Researchers identified over 1,000 genes with substantial activity differences between male and female mouse brains, revealing specific groups of brain cells orchestrating sex-typical behaviors. The study also pinpointed more than 600 differences in gene-activation levels between female mice in different phases of their estrous cycle.
A study by Professor Kazumichi Matsumiya from Tohoku University's Graduate School of Information Sciences has discovered separate body maps for different motor systems. This finding can contribute to the development of new diagnostic techniques and rehabilitation strategies for patients with motor dysfunctions.
A Dartmouth study found that people who respond faster to each other in conversations feel more connected. The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, used response time data to measure social connection between strangers and close friends.
A ketogenic diet has been shown to improve spatial memory and visual memory, lower brain inflammation indices, and cause less neuronal death in individuals with traumatic brain injuries. The diet may also slow down the rate of cellular aging, offering hope for those suffering from this condition.
UC researchers received a $1.2 million grant to examine the impact of stress hormone receptors on cell degeneration in Parkinson's disease. The study aims to develop a new model that better replicates the progression of the disease, which may lead to treatments targeting stress hormone blockers or next-generation therapeutics.
Researchers suggest forgetting memories due to environmental feedback and predictability, rather than decay. This 'natural forgetting' can be beneficial for decision-making and behavior, and may even be reversible in certain circumstances.
A recent study published in Communications Biology found that the presence of the Bmal1 gene in the striatum affects alcohol consumption in both male and female mice, but in a sex-dependent manner. Males without the protein consumed more alcohol, while female mice with it consumed less.
Researchers found increased myelination in areas associated with emotions and memory in individuals with anxiety and PTSD, correlating with specific symptoms. This study provides a possible explanation for individual variation in stress response and may lead to targeted treatments.
Research at University of California - San Diego found that infants with ASD have impaired neural responses to motherese speech, which is crucial for emotional bonding and learning. Typically developing children show stronger brain activation and interest in motherese.
Researchers at Ruhr-University Bochum propose a new platform theory of consciousness, which links conscious states to complex cognitive operations. The model suggests that consciousness arises from the interaction of different neuronal networks and is essential for adaptive behavior in humans, animals, and artificial intelligence.
Researchers develop system to image millions of brain cell connections in real-time, revealing key locations for learning and memory encoding. The new tool allows scientists to study synapse activity on a massive scale, with potential applications in understanding diseases such as Alzheimer's and autism.
Research reveals that HIV-positive individuals with cocaine addiction struggle to withhold behavioral responses due to distinct brain activity patterns. This finding highlights the need for targeted interventions to address dual diagnosis in recovery programs.
Researchers at Tel Aviv University successfully treated autism in animal models with medical cannabis oil, improving behavioral and biochemical parameters. The treatment showed significant improvement in compulsive and anxious behaviors, and a decrease in the concentration of the arousing neurotransmitter glutamate.
Research by Jesús Bas and colleagues found that smaller groups are perceived as leaders in decision-making tasks, but larger groups are seen as more powerful and controlling when it comes to resources. Children's perceptions of social status also vary with age and group size.
A new study from McGill University suggests that a combination of biological, psychological, and social factors can predict early onset psychiatric disorders with over 90% accuracy. The study identifies temperament, trauma, and dopamine as the key factors in this prediction.
Researchers found improvements in verbal learning and memory and preservation of hippocampal volume in participants with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis after 12 weeks of supervised treadmill walking exercise. A targeted pilot randomized controlled trial demonstrated the effectiveness of this intervention for managing cognitive ...
Researchers discovered the retrosplenial cortex as the site of value decision-making in the brain. Persistency allows value signals to be effectively represented across different brain areas, especially the RSC. Artificial intelligence networks mimicking mouse decisions showed remarkably similar results.
Researchers discovered a brain circuit that enables C. elegans worms to switch between foraging and feasting behaviors based on sensory information. The circuit involves a key neuron called AIA, which integrates food odor signals to influence the behavior.
The insular cortex processes both positive and negative emotions and receives information from the body, including heart rate and breathing. In mice, the brain uses bodily signals to regulate fear, keeping it within a healthy range.
A research team has identified a subset of cerebellar neurons that signal satiation after eating, leading to reduced food intake in mice. The findings suggest a novel target for therapies that could curb overeating and obesity.
Researchers developed metrics to quantify information in animal responses to reward feedback, showing that animals exhibit undermatching behavior. The new metrics provide a way to predict this deviation from the matching law, offering insights into adaptive behavior and decision-making.
Researchers suppressed cortical excitability to resolve self-interest vs. prosocial motivations in favor of cooperation, particularly in dictator games. In generosity games, no effect was observed. The study suggests the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex plays a key role in resolving conflicts between self-interest and prosociality.
Researchers identified brain cells called angular head velocity (AHV) cells that track head motion speed, which improves estimation of own head angular speed when visual cues are available. This study sheds light on the neural mechanisms underlying navigation and self-motion guidance in the brain.
Researchers at Tel Aviv University conducted a cross-adoption experiment with fruit bat pups to determine whether boldness is genetic or learned. The findings indicate that the pups behave like their adoptive mothers, not biological mothers, suggesting that boldness is an acquired trait passed on through mother's milk.