Cues Can Hijack Decision Making in Some People

Summary: Some individuals rely heavily on visual and sound cues when making decisions, and this sensitivity can lead to persistent maladaptive choices. When cue–outcome associations shift, these individuals struggle to…

Low Income, Vision Loss, and Isolation Drive Dementia Risk

Summary: A new study reveals that people with lower incomes and those from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic groups carry a higher burden of modifiable dementia risk factors. Vision loss…

Brain Decoder Translates Visual Thoughts Into Text

Summary: A new brain decoding method called mind captioning can generate accurate text descriptions of what a person is seeing or recalling—without relying on the brain’s language system. Instead, it…

New Therapy Reshapes Images That Fuel Psychosis

Summary: A new imagery-focused therapy called iMAPS may help people with psychosis gain control over disturbing mental images that fuel paranoia, fear, and hallucinations. In a feasibility trial of 45…

Brain Reveals Attention Works Like a Zoom Lens

Summary: A new study shows that our brain’s attention system first prepares broadly, then zooms in on specific details within fractions of a second. Using EEG and machine learning, researchers…

Promise of Reward Changes How We Pay Attention

Summary: A new study reveals that our brains treat sensitivity and decision bias as separate processes when rewards are at stake. Using eye-tracking and EEG during a visual task, researchers…

Blurry Beginnings Shape Brain’s Visual Pathways

Summary: New research reveals how early-life blurry, low-color vision may help shape the brain’s visual pathways into specialized systems. Using computational models trained on low-quality images followed by high-quality ones,…

Why Some Individuals Adapt to Fear Faster Than Others

Summary: A new study has uncovered the brain circuits responsible for individual differences in how animals adapt to repeated visual threats. Using advanced neural recording and manipulation tools, researchers identified…

Color Knowledge Tied to Language-Visual Brain Circuitry

Summary: A new study shows that our ability to recall details about familiar objects, like a banana’s typical color, depends on strong connections between visual and language-processing areas of the brain.…