Psychology and Neuroscience

A recently published paper establishes how the use of digital media during the early years of development hampers sleep and growth in children.

Conventionally, we think that our attention is drawn to objects that stand out from their background. However, new research suggests that our attention is drawn to things that are meaningful rather than those that stick out or are salient.    

Complex diseases such as schizophrenia and autism do not have a clear mutational footprint due to which diagnosis becomes tricky. Now a new study shows that a potential rare gene mutation could act as a predictor for the neurodevelopmental disorders—schizophrenia and autism.

Have you ever wondered why the human head and jaw is so slender? According to a recent anthropological study, when humans moved from hunting and gathering to farming, the distinct difference in chewing requirements changed the shape of the human skull.      

Would you push a fellow bystander in front of the train to save the lives of five people? According to research, people are more likely to do something that they have an emotional aversion to if the communication is done in a foreign language as opposed to their native tongue.  

Have you caught yourself doodling in a meeting or in a lecture? According to a new study from Drexel University, Philadelphia, you might be calling out to your inner artist.

In a study led by study researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, it was found that the human brain is more developed at detecting diseases in others and avoiding the disease than previously thought. Read more about their research here.

Offering deeper insights into the mechanics of learning, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin analyzed how dynamic shifts in a person's knowledge influence decision making. The researchers used brain decoding techniques to determine the level of information available to a person while making a decision, and then measured how new knowledge is reflected in changed opinions and decisions. Read more about their research here.

A team of researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz and University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign studied the effect of Internet usage on our memory. According to them, we have come to rely heavily on the Internet to access information and to aid our memory. Read more about their research here.

Researchers Robert Malenka and Boris Heifets at Stanford University have expressed the need for an in-depth study of the drug ecstasy, scientifically known as MDMA. According to the pair, the workings of the MDMA drug in humans have not been studied well. The drug is classified as Schedule -1, which indicates that it has a high abuse potential and has no accepted medical use. Read more about their research here.