News by Subject Social & Behavior

If you didn't have a brain, could you still navigate your surroundings? Thanks to new research on slime molds at the Wyss and Tufts University, the answer may be "yes." Scientists discovered that the brainless Physarum polycephalum uses its body to sense mechanical cues in its environment, and decides where to grow based on that information. This finding provides a model for understanding different types of cognition, including our own.

There is no scientific evidence that shows that smartphones and digital technology harm our biological cognitive abilities.

A study analyzing the association between a wide variety of prenatal and childhood exposures and neuropsychological development in school-age children has found that organic food intake is associated with better scores on tests of fluid intelligence (ability to solve novel reasoning problems) and working memory (ability of the brain to retain new information while it is needed in the short term).

Spatial reasoning ability in small children reflects how well they will perform in mathematics later. Researchers from the University of Basel recently came to this conclusion, making the case for better cultivation of spatial reasoning.

A first-of-its-kind longitudinal study of infant curiosity found that months-old babies most captivated by magic tricks became the most curious toddlers, suggesting a pre-verbal baby's level of interest in surprising aspects of the world remains constant over time and could predict their future cognitive ability.

Adolescents who stopped studying math showed a reduction in a critical brain chemical for brain development. This reduction in brain chemical was found in a key brain area that supports math, memory, learning, reasoning and problem solving.

A novel computational approach can effectively identify genes most likely linked to Autism Spectrum Disorders, as well as predict the severity of intellectual disability using only rare mutations in genes beyond those already associated with the syndrome.