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social behavior

·April 30, 2024·5 min read

Loneliness Peaks in Youth and Old Age

A new study revealed a U-shaped pattern of loneliness across the lifespan, with higher levels in younger and older adults and the lowest during middle adulthood. The research identified risk factors for loneliness including social isolation, lower education, and physical impairments.

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·April 23, 2024·4 min read

Long-Distance Connections Fast-Track Social Behaviors

A new study explores how human behaviors spread through social networks, revealing that long ties—connections that bridge distant parts of a network—significantly accelerate the adoption of new behaviors and ideas. Contrary to previous beliefs that closely knit groups are more effective in spreading complex behaviors, this study demonstrates that long ties facilitate broader reach and quicker adoption across diverse populations.

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·April 16, 2024·4 min read

How We Optimize Decisions for Mutual Benefit

Researchers shed light on how human brains handle decisions that impact others, particularly when options conflict. In their study, participants engaged in tasks designed to assess their preference integration and decision-making processes for both personal and others' benefits.

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·April 11, 2024·5 min read

Those Who Use Willpower Deemed More Trustworthy

Individuals who rely on willpower to resist temptations are perceived as more trustworthy than those using external commitment strategies like swear jars or internet-blocking apps. This study involved over 2,800 U.S. participants in online experiments, comparing perceptions of integrity between those using internal versus external methods for achieving goals.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience Psychology

·March 12, 2024·5 min read

Global Stress and Inflammation: A Cycle of Societal Dysfunction

Researchers propose a groundbreaking hypothesis, linking chronic stress and inflammation to societal and cognitive dysfunction on a global scale. They suggest that the brain's 'central inflammation map' could be impaired by chronic inflammation, affecting individual and collective decision-making, and behaviors.

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·March 12, 2024·6 min read

Hallucinations Enhance Social Number Misjudgment

Hallucinations, particularly presence hallucinations often experienced by individuals with Parkinson's disease, can lead to an increased overestimation of social numbers, such as the number of people in a room. This phenomenon does not extend to inanimate objects like boxes, underscoring the social nature of this overcounting.

Autism Featured Genetics Neuroscience

·February 29, 2024·7 min read

Autism Social Difficulties Linked to Specific Gene

Researchers shed light on the genetic underpinnings of social behavior, focusing on the gene GTF2I's role in Williams syndrome and its contrast in autism spectrum disorders. The study, utilizing human pluripotent stem cells to create brain organoids, reveals that alterations in GTF2I can lead to marked differences in social interaction capabilities, evidenced by increased cell death and synaptic defects in organoids lacking this gene.

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·February 26, 2024·8 min read

Serotonin and Dopamine Play Key Role in Social Decisions

A new study unveiled the intricate role of dopamine and serotonin in social decision-making, using Parkinson's disease patients as subjects. Through the "ultimatum game," the team discovered that people's choices vary significantly when interacting with humans versus computers, influenced by the dynamic interplay between these neuromodulators.

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·February 24, 2024·5 min read

Shaping Empathy: Adult Brains Can Learn Compassion

Empathy, often considered a fixed trait, has been shown to be malleable in adults, influenced by observing the empathetic reactions of others. The study utilized Computational Modeling and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to demonstrate how empathy levels adjust in adult brains based on social environments.

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·February 23, 2024·4 min read

Ketamine’s Key to Unlocking Social Bonding in Depression

Researchers made a significant breakthrough in understanding how ketamine treats depression-related social impairments, focusing on the drug's effects in the mouse model. Their study shows that (R)-ketamine, as opposed to (S)-ketamine, effectively restores neuronal activity in the anterior insular cortex, a region crucial for emotional regulation and social cognition.

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·February 13, 2024·5 min read

Loneliness Linked to Negative Eating Behaviors

Researchers reveals significant associations between social isolation, loneliness, and detrimental food and eating behaviors, uncovering the intricate relationship between emotional well-being and dietary habits. The study, involving 29 research papers, found consistent evidence that loneliness correlates with poorer diet quality, including lower fruit and vegetable intake and higher consumption of energy-dense-nutrient-poor foods, both during and outside COVID-19 lockdowns.

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·February 5, 2024·5 min read

Violence Spreads Like Contagion in Certain Groups

A recent study highlights how violence among members of the Italian mafia spreads contagiously, with those committing violent acts in groups more likely to continue such behavior in the future. Analyzing the criminal careers of 9,819 individuals convicted of organized crime, researchers found that prior violent co-offending significantly increases the likelihood of future violent acts, more so than solo offenses.