{Humans possess many cognitive abilities not seen in other animals, such as a full-blown language capacity as well as reasoning and planning abilities. Despite these differences, however, it has been difficult to identify specific mental capacities that distinguish humans from other animals. Researchers at the City University of New York (CUNY) and Stockholm University have […]
{One of the well-known challenges of marriage is keeping the passion alive after years of partnership, as passions tend to cool even in very happy relationships. In a new study, a team of psychological scientists led by James K. McNulty of Florida State University has developed an unconventional intervention for helping a marriage maintain its […]
The arrangement of the photoreceptors in our eyes allows us to detect socially {significant color variation better than other types of color vision, a team of researchers has found. Specifically, our color vision is superior at spotting "social signaling," such as blushing or other facial color changes — even when compared to the type of […]
{Your brain's reward pathways become active during art-making activities like doodling, according to a new Drexel University study.} Girija Kaimal, EdD, assistant professor in the College of Nursing and Health Professions, led a team that used fNIRS (functional near-infrared spectroscopy) technology to measure blood flow in the areas of the brain related to rewards while […]
{Not only dogs but also wolves react to inequity — similar to humans or primates. This has been confirmed in a new study by comparative psychologists of the Messerli Research Institute of the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna. Wolves and dogs refused to cooperate in an experiment when only the partner got a treat or […]
{Two teams of astronomers have harnessed the power of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile to detect the prebiotic complex organic molecule methyl isocyanate [1] in the multiple star system IRAS 16293-2422. One team was co-led by Rafael Martín-Doménech at the Centro de Astrobiología in Madrid, Spain, and Víctor M. Rivilla, at the […]
{Roughly 115 million years ago, when the ancient supercontinent Gondwana was breaking apart, a mushroom fell into a river and began an improbable journey. Its ultimate fate as a mineralized fossil preserved in limestone in northeast Brazil makes it a scientific wonder, scientists report in the journal PLOS ONE.} The mushroom somehow made its way […]
{Fear of death is a fundamental part of the human experience — we dread the possibility of pain and suffering and we worry that we'll face the end alone. Although thinking about dying can cause considerable angst, new research suggests that the actual emotional experiences of the dying are both more positive and less negative […]
{A computer's ability to predict a patient's lifespan simply by looking at images of their organs is a step closer to becoming a reality, thanks to new research led by the University of Adelaide.} The research, now published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports, has implications for the early diagnosis of serious illness, and medical […]
{Scientists at Georgia State University have rewired the neural circuit of one species and given it the connections of another species to test a hypothesis about the evolution of neural circuits and behavior.} Neurons are connected to each other to form networks that underlie behaviors. Drs. Akira Sakurai and Paul Katz of Georgia State's Neuroscience […]
{New study reveals the importance of African groundwater in kick-starting the evolutionary history of humans} An international team led by a researcher at Cardiff University believe that the movement of our ancestors across East Africa was shaped by the locations of groundwater springs. In a new study, the team argue that the springs acted as […]
{The origin of animals was one of the most important events in the history of Earth. Beautifully preserved fossil embryos suggest that our oldest ancestors might have existed a little more than half a billion years ago.} Yet, fossils are rare, difficult to interpret, and new, older fossils are constantly discovered. An alternative approach to […]
{For a long time, researchers thought of the visual cortex as a brain area that determines what you perceive based on information coming from the eyes. Neuroscientists from Radboud University now show that the area is also involved in the prediction of future events. Nature Communications publishes the results on May 23.} Imagine that you […]
{A study has found asymmetry in the cranial bones of Mexican cavefish} Imagine living in perpetual darkness in an alien world where you have to find food quickly by touch or starve for months at a time. The limestone caverns of Mexico's Sierra del Abra Tanchipa rainforest contain deep cisterns cloaked in utter blackness. This […]
{Daily interactions with toddlers may be influenced by gender, research finds} Fathers with toddler daughters are more attentive and responsive to those daughters' needs than fathers with toddler sons are to the needs of those sons, according to brain scans and recordings of the parents' daily interactions with their kids. Fathers of toddlers also sang […]
{There are significant gaps in our knowledge on the evolution of sex, according to a research review on sex chromosomes from Lund University in Sweden. Even after more than a century of study, researchers do not know enough about the evolution of sex chromosomes to understand how males and females emerge.} Greater focus on ecological […]
{A baby's babbles start to sound like speech more quickly if they get frequent vocal feedback from adults. Princeton University researchers have found the same type of feedback speeds the vocal development of infant marmoset monkeys, in the first evidence of such learning in nonhuman primates, researchers report in Current Biology on May 25.} "We […]
{Reading is such a new ability in human evolutionary history that the existence of a 'reading area' could not be specified in our genes. A kind of recycling process has to take place in the brain while learning to read: Areas evolved for the recognition of complex objects, such as faces, become engaged in translating […]
{The human brain is much better than previously thought at discovering and avoiding disease, a new study led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden reports. Our sense of vision and smell alone are enough to make us aware that someone has a disease even before it breaks out. And not only aware — we […]
{Listening to music from other cultures furthers one's pro-diversity belief} Jake Harwood turned his lifelong hobby as a musician into a scholarly question: Could the sharing of music help ease interpersonal relations between people from different backgrounds, such as Americans and Arabs? To explore the issue, and building on his years of research on intergroup […]
