Psychology
Psychology of learning, memory, decision-making, and cognitive biases.
Rethinking Memory as an Energy Landscape: The Hopfield Network
A new review reframes the Hopfield network as a physical theory of memory, showing how energy landscapes enable content-addressable recall and explaining capacity limits.
AI's Inner Language for Depression Reveals Interpretable Symptom Vectors
A new study reveals that a large language model's internal activations encode symptoms of depression in a way that aligns with clinical judgment, enabling interpretable assessment.
Dopamine Determines How Long Stress Suppresses Courtship in Fruit Flies
A new fruit fly study reveals that dopamine acts as a molecular timer, controlling how long stress suppresses courtship behavior, but not whether it's suppressed initially.
Rubber Hand Illusion Shows How Fragile Self-Identity Shapes Body Awareness
People with a weaker sense of self are more likely to experience the rubber hand illusion, even when sensory signals are out of sync, linking psychological identity to bodily awareness.
Proximity Paradox: Why Constant Contact Fuels Conflict in Isolated Teams
A 10-month Antarctic study reveals that constant physical proximity in extreme confinement can increase conflict and mistrust, rather than foster teamwork.
5 Myths About Learning Languages, Debunked by Experts
Language experts debunk five common myths that hold people back from learning a new language, emphasizing communication, culture, and connection over perfection.
How Filling Visual Gaps Boosts Sustained Attention: New EEG Study
Researchers found that filling brief blanks between visual targets reduces attentional fluctuations and stabilizes sustained attention, as measured by EEG.
Labeling Emotions May Help Reduce Anxiety in People with High Autistic Traits
New research suggests that putting feelings into words can help reduce anxiety for those with higher autistic traits, even when uncertainty triggers distress.
How the Brain Dampens Losses to Support Mental Toughness
Psychologically resilient people place less value on minor losses, driven by heightened prefrontal brain activity that regulates negative emotions, offering a potential target for training mental toughness.
High Cognitive Scores Linked to Higher Depression Relapse Risk
A new study of 1,800 UK adults finds that for those with a history of depression, higher cognitive performance may predict a greater risk of relapse, contrary to expectations.
Dreams Are Lifelike Stories, Not Replays: How the Brain Reinterprets Daily Life
A study of 3,700 dream reports shows dreams are a sophisticated reinterpretation of life, influenced by personality and global events.
How a Hierarchical Energy-Based Model Explains Multimodal Cognition
New model IM-LEPP integrates vision and language in a hierarchical energy-based framework, explaining attention, language processing, and memory.
Synaesthesia: When Senses Mix, and What It Reveals About Your Brain
Synaesthesia, affecting 1-4% of people, causes senses to blend—like seeing colors in music. Research reveals extra brain connections, offering insight into diverse perception.
Why Overconfidence Persists: The Costly Peacock Tail of the Mind
A new study explains that overconfidence survives evolution because its costly mistakes are a credible signal of ability, kept in check by loss aversion.
How Habituation Works Across Species and Machines: A Universal Principle
New research reveals a simple nonlinear motif that explains habituation in animals, single cells, and circuits, with implications for understanding learning and memory.
Consistent Daily Routines Reduce Pain and Depression in Older Adults
A new study finds that maintaining regular daily schedules for waking, eating, and sleeping can significantly reduce physical pain and depressive symptoms in older adults, regardless of sleep quality.
Astrocyte Shifts May Drive Depression, Anxiety, and Bipolar Disorder
New research shows that astrocytes can shift into neurotoxic states, disrupting emotional brain networks and causing overlapping symptoms in depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder.
Biomarkers Boost Antidepressant Success Rates by 67%
A new study shows that using fMRI brain scans and cognitive tests to match patients to antidepressants increases response rates by nearly 67%, moving psychiatry toward precision medicine.
Global study maps how culture shapes self-control and delayed gratification
A massive 77-nation study with ~15,000 participants reveals how cultural and situational factors influence our ability to delay gratification, with key implications for personal finance, health, and sustainability.
Trauma and Poverty Linked to Brain Changes in Schizophrenia
A new systematic review of 114 studies with over 10,000 participants shows that childhood trauma, poverty, and discrimination are tied to structural and functional brain changes linked to schizophrenia.
Children's Gaze Patterns Reveal Early Depression Risk, Study Finds
A new study shows that depressive symptoms alter how children attend to emotional faces, with effects varying by family history of depression.
Why Severely Stressed Students Are Turning to AI for Therapy
New research shows 18% of college students use generative AI for mental health, with double the usage among those with severe anxiety, depression, or suicidality.
Your Brain Doesn’t Make Decisions the Way You Think
New research from Indiana University challenges the traditional 'sandwich model' of decision-making, showing the brain has no dedicated decision-making center.
Long-Term Depression Reverses Brain Network Connectivity
New research shows that depression lasting over 24 months flips the connection between executive and introspective brain networks, worsening symptoms.
Harsh Parenting Disrupts Child Stress Regulation, Study Finds
New research shows that harsh parenting alters children's biological stress regulation, making them more dependent on external regulation as they grow.
Why Regret Loses Its Sting as We Age: New Research on Emotional Resilience
A new study finds that older adults experience less anger and frustration when reflecting on regrets, shifting from distress to meaning-making.