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social neuroscience

·November 15, 2023·9 min read

Infant Brain Development and Social Interactions

A new study delves into infant brain development and its impact on social interactions and stress recovery during the first year of life. Through functional MRI scans and interactive tasks with mothers, researchers observe early neural patterns. One study reveals that greater brain network connectivity at 3 months correlates with improved infant-mother dyadic flexibility at 6 months.

Featured Neuroscience

·November 14, 2023·6 min read

Brain Predicts Actions: Rethinking Perception in Social Interactions

Researchers uncovered that our brain relies more on internal predictions than sensory input when observing others' actions. This groundbreaking study challenges the classical view that visual perception primarily drives understanding of others' actions.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·November 13, 2023·5 min read

The Elusive Link Between Brown Fat and Social Contact

A study exploring the link between brown adipose tissue (BAT) activity and the tendency for physical contact yielded inconclusive results, challenging earlier assumptions. Researchers attempted to replicate a 2012 study using infrared thermography to measure BAT activity, hypothesizing that lower activity might correlate with a greater need for physical contact.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·November 9, 2023·7 min read

Best Practices Boost Replicability in Social Behavior Studies

A new study yielded a study demonstrating high replicability of findings in the social-behavioral sciences when best practices are applied. The six-year project involved the discovery and replication of 16 novel findings using methods like pre-registration and large sample sizes.

Featured Neuroscience

·November 6, 2023·3 min read

The Cerebellum is Key to Unlocking Social Memory Woes

Researchers made a pivotal discovery about the cerebellum's role in social recognition memory, potentially revolutionizing treatment for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's. By modulating cerebellar activity in preclinical models, they found it crucial for retrieving social information, a function often deteriorating in dementia patients.

This shows a woman sitting alone on a rock.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·November 2, 2023·6 min read

Lonely or Alone? Revealing the Fine Line

Researchers have discerned the nuanced relationship between feeling lonely and actually being alone. The study revealed that loneliness creeps in when individuals spend over 75% of their time in solitude.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·October 23, 2023·6 min read

Canine Kings & Feline Pharaohs: Cultural Nuances in Pet Affection

Researchers explored the emotional and financial investment of pet owners toward their cats and dogs across Denmark, Austria, and the UK. Their research indicated that, across these nations, dogs generally receive more emotional attachment and financial care than cats.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·October 19, 2023·4 min read

Romance and Routine: Nurturing Commitment in Couples

A new study explored how couples maintain and nurture their relationships. The study categorized relationship maintenance behaviors into five areas, analyzing data from 192 heterosexual married couples.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·October 16, 2023·6 min read

Dreams Across Cultures: How Societies Shape Our Dreamscapes

Researchers conducted a study analyzing dreams of individuals across different cultures. By comparing dreams of forager communities in Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo with Western dreams, they found the former often depicted more threatening yet socially-supportive scenarios.

This shows a lonely man and a shadowy figure.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·September 29, 2023·5 min read

Loneliness Merges Real and Fictional Friends in the Brain

Researchers discovered that lonely fans of "Game of Thrones" processed their favorite characters similarly to real friends in their brains. By using fMRI scans while participants considered the traits of show characters and real friends, a blurred boundary was observed between real and fictional friends for lonelier individuals.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·September 21, 2023·3 min read

Brain Region That Links Language to Social Cognition Identified

Researchers discovered that neural activity in the left ventral temporoparietal junction (vTPJ) and the lateral anterior temporal lobe (lATL) during sentence processing is tied to social-semantic working memory. Previously, these regions were attributed to general language processing. Using fMRI experiments, the study demonstrated that these regions respond to sentences with social meaning and maintain activity even after the linguistic stimulus is gone. This insight reshapes our understanding of the brain's cortical language network.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·September 7, 2023·8 min read

Decoding Morality: How Our Brains Differentiate Right from Wrong

Researchers, guided by the Moral Foundations Theory (MFT), explored the neural basis of morality. They discovered that while a general brain network is involved in judging moral violations, distinct activity patterns arise for different moral issues, supporting a pluralistic view.