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Psychology

This shows a woman listening to a podcast.

·November 20, 2024·4 min read

How Podcasts Inspire Positive Healthy Changes

Podcasts are increasingly popular, with people spending over five hours weekly listening to them. A new study reveals health-related podcasts can significantly improve health knowledge, boost physical activity, and encourage healthier eating habits.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·November 20, 2024·5 min read

Leveling Up: How Gaming Boosts Decision Making and Cooperation

A new study reveals that multiplayer online gaming can enhance workplace skills such as teamwork, problem-solving, and leadership. Researchers found that gamers with years of experience apply their in-game behaviors to professional settings, developing patience, self-confidence, and coaching abilities.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·November 19, 2024·8 min read

Public Trust in Scientists Grows with Intellectual Humility

Research shows that scientists who exhibit intellectual humility—admitting their knowledge may be incomplete—earn greater public trust. Across five studies, participants rated intellectually humble scientists as more trustworthy and were more likely to believe their findings on polarizing topics like climate change and vaccinations.

This shows an illustration of a robot, a tree and people.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·November 19, 2024·4 min read

How AI Could Shape Human Evolution in Subtle Yet Profound Ways

Artificial intelligence is becoming a pivotal force in human lives, prompting questions about its evolutionary effects. A new study explores how AI may influence human evolution through everyday interactions, likening human-AI dynamics to ecological relationships such as predation or competition. Potential evolutionary shifts include changes in brain size, attention spans, personality traits, and social behaviors, particularly through AI's impact on relationships and decision-making.

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·November 19, 2024·5 min read

How to Make and Break Habits Using Neuroscience

Researchers have developed a framework for understanding and changing habits by leveraging the brain's automatic and goal-directed systems. Habits form when automatic responses overpower conscious control, leading to both everyday action slips and compulsive behaviors.

This shows a woman eating in a small cell.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·November 18, 2024·4 min read

Confined Spaces Change How We Smell and Experience Food

Researchers found that confined environments, like the International Space Station, alter the way people perceive food aromas, with emotions significantly coloring their responses. Using virtual reality to simulate space conditions, participants reported stronger smells for most aromas, except lemongrass, compared to a microgravity posture.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·November 18, 2024·5 min read

Robots Help Unlock the Mystery of Human Sense of Self

A new study explores how robots can model and test aspects of the human sense of self, offering new insights into this complex phenomenon. Robots can simulate processes like body ownership and agency, or be used in experiments to study how humans perceive robots as social entities.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·November 18, 2024·5 min read

Body Image Impacts Motor Skill Learning

Self-consciousness about one’s body affects the ability to learn and perform movement tasks, according to new research. Participants recalling body-related embarrassment performed worse on motor tasks compared to those recalling pride, with the negative impact being stronger in men than women.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·November 18, 2024·3 min read

Study Debunks Heart Rate Variability as Predictor of Aggression

New research has found no evidence linking heart rate variability (HRV) to reactive aggression, overturning previous theories. HRV measures the variation between heartbeats and has been associated with stress resilience, but this study shows it is not a reliable biomarker for aggression.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·November 16, 2024·3 min read

How Depression Alters Stress, Health, and Lifespan

Depression disrupts the body's stress systems, causing physical health risks like heart disease, diabetes, and stroke, and reducing life expectancy by 7-10 years. The condition triggers brain structure changes, such as a 40% reduction in subgenual prefrontal cortex volume, and disrupts hormone systems involving CRH, norepinephrine, and cortisol.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·November 15, 2024·5 min read

How Stressful Events Alter Memories

Researchers have discovered how stress disrupts memory specificity, leading to generalized aversive memories—a hallmark of PTSD. Stress increases endocannabinoid release, enlarging memory engrams in the brain, which triggers fearful responses to unrelated, safe situations.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·November 14, 2024·4 min read

How Decision-Making Improves with Age

Adolescents are known for making less optimal, noisy decisions, but a recent study reveals that these tendencies decrease with age and are linked to improvements in complex decision-making skills. Researchers found that decision noise, or variability in choices, mediates age-related gains in goal-directed behaviors and adaptability.