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social neuroscience

This shows the outline of people and speech bubbles.

·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 Neurology Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·November 12, 2025·5 min read

Low Income, Vision Loss, and Isolation Drive Dementia Risk

A new study reveals that people with lower incomes and those from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic groups carry a higher burden of modifiable dementia risk factors. Vision loss and social isolation were among the most significant contributors for those living below the poverty line, suggesting that better access to healthcare and community support could have major protective effects.

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.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience

·October 16, 2025·5 min read

Where You Live Could Shape Your Brain and Dementia Risk

New research shows that neighborhood conditions — from pollution and housing to economic opportunity — may directly affect brain health and dementia risk. Analyzing brain scans and biomarkers from 679 adults, scientists found that people living in areas with higher social and environmental disadvantages showed signs of reduced brain thickness, altered blood flow, and white matter changes.

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Featured Neuroscience

·October 14, 2025·5 min read

Moving Away Makes Faces Seem Angrier

New research shows that our own physical movements can alter how we perceive emotions on others’ faces. In a virtual reality experiment, participants were more likely to judge a face as angry when they actively moved away from it, compared to when the face moved away from them.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience

·October 9, 2025·6 min read

Lifelong Social Bonds Keep the Aging Brain Sharp and Flexible

Rats that lived in social groups throughout their lives retained youthful memory and mental flexibility well into old age, according to new research. Even with equal physical stimulation, only socially connected rats performed as well as younger ones on complex memory tests, while isolated rats showed significant decline.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·October 8, 2025·6 min read

Social Inference Could Be the Key to Healing Schizophrenia

Researchers have identified a brain function that could transform how schizophrenia is treated—by focusing on social inference, the ability to interpret social cues and intentions. The study found that strengthening this skill early can help young patients regain independence and prevent long-term cognitive decline.

This is an illustration of people pushing neurons, as in a battle.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·October 7, 2025·6 min read

Social Brain: Neurons That Decide Who Wins and Who Yields

Researchers have pinpointed specific brain cells that control how animals react to social defeat, offering new insight into the biology of dominance and submission. In male mice, neurons in the dorsomedial striatum—known as cholinergic interneurons—were found to regulate the “loser effect,” where past defeats lower an individual’s future social rank.

Autism Featured Neuroscience

·October 4, 2025·6 min read

Born to Connect: Newborn Brain Already Wired for Social Awareness

A new study reveals that the brain’s social perception pathway—a network that processes faces, gaze, and speech—is already active at birth or shortly thereafter. Using advanced imaging data, researchers showed that newborns exhibit robust connectivity in regions responsible for visual and social processing.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·September 30, 2025·7 min read

Income Inequality Reshapes Children’s Brains and Mental Health

A large-scale neuroimaging study of over 10,000 U.S. children reveals that income inequality in society is tied to structural and functional brain changes that predict poorer mental health outcomes. Unlike individual family income, societal inequality impacts children across socioeconomic groups, suggesting that social environments exert powerful biological effects.

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Featured Genetics Neuroscience

·September 26, 2025·4 min read

Lifelong Social Bonds Can Slow Biological Aging at the Cellular Level

A new study shows that lifelong social advantages—from early parental warmth to adult friendships and community support—can slow biological aging. Researchers analyzed over 2,100 participants and found that those with stronger, more consistent social connections had younger biological ages according to epigenetic clocks GrimAge and DunedinPACE.