Better ‘Mind Reading’ Skills Linked to Enhanced Cooperation

Summary: A new study reveals that individuals with stronger ‘mindreading’ abilities, or the capacity to understand others’ feelings and intentions, are more successful in cooperative tasks. This trait, also known…

Aggression Is A Result of Self-Control, Not Lack Thereof

Summary: A new study contests the belief that aggression stems from poor self-control. Instead, it suggests that aggression is often a deliberate, controlled act, inflicted to maximize retribution. This finding,…

Conceptual Linking: How Pain Avoidance Can Spread to Safe Activities

Summary: Avoiding activities associated with past pain can cause individuals to shun related tasks that might be painless. This avoidance may generalize to safe activities, leading to needless abstention from…

Brain Barrier Inflammation: A Stealthy Contributor to Multiple Sclerosis

Summary: A study in mice reveals that inflammation in the brain’s barrier, or the meninges, may seep into grey matter, fostering the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS). Utilizing novel methods,…

Positive parenting can help protect against the effects of stress in childhood and adolescence, new study shows

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea Warm and supportive parenting may buffer against the effects of stress during childhood and adolescence. That…

Brain’s Melody and Prose: How Music and Language Affect Different Regions

Summary: A recent study reveals how different brain areas are activated when processing music and language. Using direct brain recordings during an awake craniotomy, the researchers observed shared temporal lobe…

Master Your Breath, Master Your Health: The Transformative Power of Controlled Breathing

Summary: Breathing, an autonomous function, also possesses a feature unique to a few bodily activities: we can control it. According to research, controlled breathing stimulates the nervous and cardiovascular systems,…

Prenatal THC Exposure May Risk Lifelong Health

Summary: A recent study shows that exposure to THC during pregnancy could significantly affect fetal development, leading to life-long health impacts on offspring. The research discovered that THC exposure altered…

Creative Minds at Ease: Making the Most of Idle Time for Innovation

Summary: Creative people effectively utilize downtime by exploring their thoughts. The research demonstrated that creative individuals were less prone to boredom when left alone, as they allowed one idea to…

Schizophrenia Linked to Non-Inherited Genetic Mutations

Summary: Researchers found a link between schizophrenia and somatic copy-number variants, mutations occurring post-inheritance. The study scrutinized genotype-marker data from over 20,000 blood samples, identifying two genes, NRXN1 and ABCB11,…