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UC Santa Barbara

Featured Genetics Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·May 22, 2020·5 min read

Wired for marriage: The neural and genetic links to romantic love

Researchers have identified both genetic and neural mechanisms associated with romantic love and attachment. The maintenance of romantic love is not only associated with subcortical brain regions but also higher-order centers of the brain. The propensity to sustain romantic love appears to also be affected by genetic variability, specifically with genes associated with dopamine, vasopressin, and oxytocin.

Featured Neuroscience

·April 14, 2020·5 min read

Ultraviolet LEDs effective at eliminating coronavirus from surfaces, air and water

Researchers are developing new ultraviolet LEDs that can clean surfaces contaminated with COVID-19. The LEDs will also be able to purify air and water that contain coronavirus.

Featured Genetics Neuroscience Psychology

·February 22, 2019·9 min read

Finding the Elusive Drinking ‘Brake’

Researchers have uncovered a mechanism in the BNST that senses the negative effects of alcohol and modulates the urge to drink. The study reports that when this mechanism doesn't function correctly, we lose the ability to recognize that we have had enough to drink.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·December 5, 2018·5 min read

Modeling the Microbiome

Researchers have developed a new mathematical model that analyzes the interactions between gut bacteria.

Featured Psychology

·September 11, 2018·8 min read

The Universality of Shame

Researchers hypothesize shame may have been built into human nature by evolution because it served an important function for our foraging ancestors. The study reports an implicit mental map of how negatively others will perceive a person sets the level of shame they feel for their potential action.

Featured Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·August 15, 2018·5 min read

Category Learning Can Be Influenced By Where an Object is in Our Field of Vision

Where objects appear in a person's visual field can affect the ability to determine what the object is, researchers say.

Featured Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·March 27, 2018·5 min read

Strategic Expression: Facial Expressions as Tools for Social Influence

A new study debunks the assumption that facial expressions simply reveal human emotion. Researchers report our facial expressions stem primarily from our intentions.

Featured Neuroscience

·January 4, 2018·3 min read

The Sixth Taste?

UC Santa Barbara researchers reveal humans and fruit flies can sense the taste of calcium. The researchers have identified a unique class of gustatory receptor neurons required to help taste calcium in Drosophila.