Journal Club

Highlighting recent, timely papers selected by Academy member labs

Category Archives: Psychological and Cognitive Sciences

Friends appear to share patterns of brain activity

Posted on January 15, 2021 by Amber Dance

Great minds think alike, so goes the saying. Greatness notwithstanding, a study in PNAS finds that the minds of friends do appear to share patterns of activity. “A lot of us have the intuition that our friends are kind … Continue reading →

Future choices may be guided by our memories of past ones

Posted on July 17, 2020 by Jill Sakai

When it comes to making choices, past decisions may play a surprisingly large role. The traditional view of decision-making is that our choices are guided by what we remember about the outcomes of previous choices we’ve made. But in recent … Continue reading →

Judging others based on the rewards they receive correlates with political leanings

Posted on March 15, 2020 by Amber Dance

Which employee deserves the highest salary? Should a professor receive tenure? Did my spouse do their fair share of the household chores? These types of questions all require people to pass judgment on the effort expended by others. According to … Continue reading →

Dopamine-making neurons, an ongoing mystery, play a bigger role in reinforcing learning than in initiating action

Posted on January 24, 2020 by Amber Dance

Deep in the midbrain, one type of neuron has two crucial jobs when it comes to acting while anticipating a reward—a state also known as Pavlovian conditioning. Called dopaminergic (DA) neurons, they can link a signal, such as a sound … Continue reading →

For choices involving uncertainty, the brain simplifies the math that drives our decisions

Posted on September 27, 2019 by Lynne Peeples

Every day, people make countless decisions, big and small: Should I buy that new house? Do I want chocolate or vanilla ice cream? A recent study suggests that when faced with uncertainty regarding a choice, how a person evaluates their … Continue reading →

Journal Club: Psychological tasks in the lab are poor predictors of real-world self-regulation

Posted on June 7, 2019 by Amber Dance

Skipping dessert to stay healthy, saving money for a rainy day, not shouting at your boss even when there might be good reason—psychologists group these and other human behaviors under the large umbrella of “self-regulation.” That is, despite the near-term … Continue reading →

Categories: Journal Club | Psychological and Cognitive Sciences | Tagged psychological space, self-regulation, surveys, tasks | Leave a comment

Journal Club: Pinpointing theory of mind deficiencies in autism

Posted on February 8, 2019 by Amy McDermott

Around age four, preschoolers learn that other people have unique thoughts and feelings, an inner life. These children start to be able to predict a person’s behavior based on that understanding. They start developing theory of mind (ToM). That developmental … Continue reading →

Categories: Journal Club | Neuroscience | Psychological and Cognitive Sciences | Tagged ASD, autism, theory of mind | Leave a comment

Journal Club: Tracing light’s effect on mood and learning in mice from the eye to deep within the brain

Posted on October 11, 2018 by Carolyn Beans

To the mammalian eye, light offers more than just sight. “Light is so important for many innate functions,” says neuroscientist Samer Hattar of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). “We really don’t appreciate the importance of light in our … Continue reading →

Categories: Animal Behavior | Journal Club | Neuroscience | Psychological and Cognitive Sciences | Tagged circadian rhythms, intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells, ipRGC, perihabenular nucleus, retina, seasonal affective disorder | Leave a comment

Journal Club: Canines remember who cooperates, suggesting principles similar to those seen in human interaction

Posted on March 15, 2018 by Carolyn Beans

Human cooperation often comes down to one key understanding: You help me, I’ll help you. Social animals, including dogs, also help others, even nonrelatives. But many scientists assume that animal cooperation is a different breed. They see animals as less … Continue reading →