Homeostasis is the ability of living organisms to maintain stable internal conditions, such as temperature, hydration and blood sugar levels, irrespective of any changes in their surroundings. Homeostatic mechanisms also regulate behaviors that are central to the...
Pregnancy is often a unique experience, marked by anticipation and mental representations of what will happen after a baby's birth. Understanding how people's experiences while pregnant influence their parenting skills and how they perceive their children after birth...
Depression is among the most widespread mental health disorders worldwide, typically characterized by persistent feelings of sadness, a lack of interest in daily activities and dysregulated sleep and/or eating habits. There are now a wide range of pharmacological...
The ability to detect imminent threats and execute behaviors aimed at protecting oneself, such as hiding, running away or defending oneself, is central to the survival of most animal species. A region of the mammalian brain known to play a key role in threat response...
The human brain is known to contain a wide range of cell types, which have different roles and functions. The processes via which cells in the brain, particularly its outermost layer (i.e., the cerebral cortex), gradually become specialized and take on specific roles...
From birth to the last moments of life, the human brain is known to change and evolve significantly, both in terms of its physical organization (i.e., structural connectivity) and the coordination between different brain regions (i.e., functional connectivity)....
Reading is a highly valuable skill that allows humans to acquire new knowledge, pursue an education and complete a wide range of real-world tasks. Many past psychology and neuroscience studies set out to better understand the neural underpinnings of reading and the...
Human beings exhibit marked differences in habits, lifestyles and behavioral tendencies. One of these differences, known as chronotype, is the inclination to sleep and wake up early or alternatively to sleep and wake up late.
As humans and other animals navigate their surroundings and experience different things, their brain creates so-called cognitive maps, which are internal representations of environments or tasks. These mental maps are eventually generalized into schemas, frameworks...
As humans age, particularly after middle age, their brain functions, cognitive abilities and memory can deteriorate to varying degrees. Aging-related disorders marked by cognitive decline, particularly dementia, have become increasingly widespread over the past decades.