Summary: What makes someone “cool” appears to be remarkably consistent across cultures, according to a global psychology study. Researchers surveyed nearly 6,000 people from 13 countries and found that cool…
Category: Life
Viewpoint: Convoluted SCOTUS decision upholds Texas law requiring pornography websites to verify users’ ages, but confusions abound
The Supreme Court upheld a Texas anti-pornography law…that is nearly identical to a federal law it struck down more than two decades ago. Rather than overruling the previous case — Ashcroft v. ACLU (2004)…
Left-Handed Creativity Myth Debunked – Neuroscience News
Summary: The long-standing belief that left-handed people are more creative has been challenged by a new meta-analysis of over a century of research. After reviewing nearly 1,000 studies, researchers found…
Brain Criticality May Hold Key to Learning, Memory, and Alzheimer’s
Summary: New research proposes a unified theory of brain function based on criticality—a state where the brain teeters between order and chaos, allowing it to learn, adapt, and process information…
One Gene Rewires Fear Circuits and Fuels Anxiety
Summary: Researchers have uncovered how losing the autism-linked gene PTEN in a specific set of inhibitory neurons reshapes brain circuits tied to fear and anxiety. Using advanced circuit-mapping techniques, they…
Exercise Proven to Boost Kids’ Mental Health
Summary: A massive analysis of over 375 trials shows that structured exercise significantly reduces depression and anxiety in children and teens. Low-intensity resistance activities like light weights were most effective…
How the Brain Forms Indirect Associations to Guide Complex Decisions
Summary: A new study reveals how the brain can make decisions based not only on direct experiences, but also on indirect associations between seemingly unrelated stimuli. In experiments with mice,…
Death Isn’t the End: AI Brings Lost Voices Back to Life
Summary: A new paper explores how generative AI is transforming the way we interact with the dead, from virtual reality reunions to lifelike digital avatars. These “generative ghosts” can remember,…
Brain Injury Could Explain Sudden Criminal Behavior
Summary: A new study has found that damage to a specific white matter pathway in the brain—the right uncinate fasciculus—may increase the likelihood of criminal or violent behavior following brain…
How should we regulate human-created stem-cell embryos
The stem cell-based embryo model (SCBEM) takes advantage of the flexibility of pluripotent stem cells (non-reproductive cells that can give rise to many different types of cells) to resemble that…
