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social behavior

·December 10, 2025·6 min read

Positive Imagining Changes the Brain in Seconds

Vividly imagining a positive interaction with someone can increase how much you like them — and even alter how your brain stores information about that person. During imagined encounters, participants developed stronger preferences, and brain scans revealed activity patterns similar to those seen when people learn from real rewarding experiences.

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Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·November 13, 2025·6 min read

Why Sharing Good Deeds Feels Bad

New research shows that people often feel worse when telling others about their good deeds than when keeping them private or discussing personal achievements. Across five studies, participants predicted more shame and embarrassment when sharing altruistic acts, partly because they feared appearing motivated by social credit.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·November 11, 2025·6 min read

AI Models Form Theory-of-Mind Beliefs

Researchers showed that large language models use a small, specialized subset of parameters to perform Theory-of-Mind reasoning, despite activating their full network for every task. This sparse internal circuitry depends heavily on positional encoding, especially rotary positional encoding, which shapes how the model tracks beliefs and perspectives.

Featured Neuroscience

·November 9, 2025·8 min read

Shyness May Originate in the Cerebellum

New research reveals that trait shyness is linked to reduced spontaneous neural activity in the cerebellum, a brain region traditionally associated with motor control but increasingly recognized for its role in emotion and social cognition. Using resting-state fMRI and ReHo analysis, researchers found that shy individuals exhibited lower synchrony in the cerebellar Crus I region.

This shows a child standing alone and a neural network.

Featured Neuroscience

·October 2, 2025·6 min read

Teen Solitude Linked to Measurable Changes in Brain Networks

Adolescents who regularly choose solitude over social connection show measurable differences in brain structure and function, according to a large neuroimaging study. Brain scans revealed altered activity and weaker connections in regions tied to social and emotional processing, with changes spanning multiple cognitive networks.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience

·September 20, 2025·5 min read

Dementia Prevention Must Begin in Childhood, Not Just Midlife

A large international study shows that the accumulation of social hardships across life—known as the social exposome—has lasting effects on the brain. Adverse exposures, including low education, food insecurity, and limited healthcare, were linked to cognitive decline, mental health issues, and altered brain structure and function.

This shows two people and a digital outline of a person.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·September 17, 2025·10 min read

When Machines Become Our Moral Loophole

A large study across 13 experiments with over 8,000 participants shows that people are far more likely to act dishonestly when they can delegate tasks to AI rather than do them themselves. Dishonesty rose most when participants only had to set broad goals, rather than explicit instructions, allowing them to distance themselves from the unethical act.

This shows the outline of two people with their hands touching and oxytocin molecules floating around them.

Featured Neuroscience

·September 16, 2025·3 min read

Oxytocin Fuels Reciprocity and Empathy

Researchers developed a fully automated cooperation task showing that rats engage in true reciprocity, not just mutual benefit. Social interaction enhanced success, while dampened interaction reduced cooperative performance.

This shows the outline of two people and brains.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·September 15, 2025·2 min read

Brain Circuits Show Why Friends’ Lies Are Easier to Believe

Researchers explored how people process deception from friends versus strangers, using brain imaging to study decision-making in gain and loss contexts. Volunteers were more likely to believe lies in situations promising rewards, with brain activity highlighting circuits for risk, reward, and intention.

This shows the outline of a head and brain. Behind are two people fighting.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·September 8, 2025·2 min read

Aggression Is Contagious: Observing Violence Primes the Brain for Aggression

A new study shows that observing violence can make individuals more likely to act aggressively later, but the effect depends on familiarity. Male mice who watched familiar peers attack others became more violent afterward, driven by amygdala neurons that “prime” aggression.

Autism Featured Genetics Neuroscience

·September 5, 2025·4 min read

Environment Shapes Autism-Linked Social Behaviors

A new study shows that environment significantly affects social behavior in zebrafish carrying a mutation linked to autism. In stressful, white Styrofoam tanks, the fish displayed higher anxiety and less social contact, while in familiar Plexiglass tanks their sociability improved.

Autism Featured Genetics Neuroscience

·September 4, 2025·5 min read

Autism Gene Found to Alter Brain’s Social Hormone Signals

A new study reveals how a mutation in the Shank3 gene, associated with autism, alters social behavior by disrupting vasopressin release in the brain. In mice, this mutation reduced sociability and defensive aggression by limiting vasopressin reaching the lateral septum.