Social Sciences

Ames, IA — Parents would never give their children the keys to the car without supervised training and driver’s education. An Iowa State University researcher says parents and educators need to take a similar approach before handing children a keyboard to access the digital world.  ISU psychology professor Douglas Gentile worked with the DQ (Digital […]

Bochum, Germany — Scientists use many different tests to investigate what happens in the brain in people experiencing stress. It is unclear to what extent the various methods with which subjects are placed under stress are comparable to each other. In a meta-analysis, a biopsychology team from Ruhr-Universität Bochum compared 31 previous studies that had […]

Los Angeles, CA — For the first time in humans, investigators at Cedars-Sinai have identified the neurons responsible for cancelling planned behaviours or actions–a highly adaptive skill that when lost, can lead to unwanted movements. Known as “stop signal neurons,” these neurons are critical in powering someone to stop or abort an action they have already put in […]

La Jolla, CA — As scientists learn more about the microorganisms that colonize the body–collectively called the microbiota — one area of intense interest is the effect that these microbes can have on the brain. A new study led by Salk Institute scientists has identified a strain of E. colibacteria that, when living in the guts of […]

New York, NY — The United States incarcerates more residents than any other country, however there is limited research that examines how people view such punishment, and whether views about punishment change with development. Previous research on this topic raises two very different possibilities: 1) children are typically more optimistic than adults, making them more […]

Berkeley, CA — Whether at a birthday party in Brazil, a funeral in Kenya or protests in Hong Kong, humans all use variations of the same facial expressions in similar social contexts, such as smiles, frowns, grimaces and scowls, a new study from the University of California, Berkeley, shows. The findings, published today, Dec. 16, […]

Geneva, Switzerland — Being socially and emotionally competent from an early age is likely to help children win acceptance by their peers, build better relationships with teachers, and facilitate academic learning. Pretend play is a pedagogical tool that can be used to stimulate a child’s socio-emotional competences. A curriculum based on this approach has been […]

Singapore — From climate change to the ongoing pandemic and beyond, the issues facing today’s world are increasingly complex and dynamic. Yet solving problems like these – which interweave social, environmental, physical, and political factors – requires new approaches that extend beyond traditional ways of thinking. It requires people to draw upon and integrate seemingly […]

Paris, France — Altered white matter limits the brain’s conscious access to information, potentially contributing to delusions and other psychotic symptoms of mental health disorders, according to new research published in JNeurosci. Your brain is always active, but you are not always aware of it. Accepted theory holds you do not become consciously aware of something […]

Belmont, MA — Fear and fear extinction learning (the gradual reduction of fear by repeated exposure to the feared object) are adaptive processes caused by molecular changes in specific brain circuits, and they’re perturbed in conditions such as anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. A new study by investigators at McLean Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital […]

Ann Arbor, MI — New research could improve the odds that people with obsessive-compulsive disorder will receive a therapy that really works for them – something that eludes more than a third of those who currently get OCD treatment. The study, performed at the University of Michigan, suggests the possibility of predicting which of two […]

Stanford, CA — Like the legendary falling apple that hit Isaac Newton and led to his groundbreaking insight on the nature of gravity, COVID-19 could provide unintended glimpses into how complex Earth systems operate, according to a new Stanford-led paper. The perspective, published July 29 in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, hypothesizes outcomes of unprecedented […]