TL;DR: A 2026 study in PNAS found that across convention-learning experiments, people explored uncertain options at first, then committed once enough evidence crossed a Tolerance Principle threshold rather than simply copying others or optimizing probabilities. Key Findings Two-stage learning fit behavior: Participants behaved probabilistically while uncertain, then shifted into stable choices once accumulated evidence crossed …
TL;DR: A 2026 human microbiome and intervention study in Nature Communications found that coffee drinkers showed distinct gut microbiome composition and lower several microbial metabolites, while caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee shifted stress and mood measures in the intervention phase. Key Findings Study type: a study of habitual coffee intake, caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee, gut microbes, …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in Neuropsychopharmacology found that reward uncertainty, measured with functional MRI (fMRI), a brain-scan method, engaged different adolescent brain networks during waiting for a possible reward versus learning the outcome, with anxiety and anhedonia tied to different parts of that response. Key Findings 84 adolescents were scanned: The sample included psychotropic-medication-free youth …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition found that across 12 online experiments, memorable faces helped people remember paired names, but memorable scenes did not give the same boost to paired city names or first names. The result suggests that some faces are better retrieval cues, and that face …
TL;DR: A 2006 study in Perception found that synesthesia was estimated to be 88 times more common than the old 0.05% figure after researchers used non-self-referred sampling and objective consistency tests. Key Findings Older conventional wisdom was about 0.05%: the paper describes that as the prior belief about synesthesia prevalence. The prevalence estimate was 88 …
TL;DR: A 2026 MRI study in Brain Imaging and Behavior of 136 healthy young adults found no robust whole-brain gray matter, white matter, cortical thickness, or brain-age differences between early and late chronotypes. Key Findings 136 young adults: The study compared 68 early chronotypes with 68 late chronotypes. No robust whole-brain VBM differences: Voxel-based gray …
TL;DR: A 2026 network analysis study in European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience found that insomnia was present in 18.3% and childhood trauma in 49.5% of patients, while daytime dysfunction and sleep-related distress were central nodes, while mood symptoms and difficulty falling asleep bridged domains. Key Findings Evidence map: a network analysis connecting childhood …
TL;DR: A 2026 review in Reviews in the Neurosciences argues that chemotherapy-induced peripheral neurotoxicity (CIPN), nerve injury from cancer treatment, can involve central nervous system changes that help explain chronic neuropathic pain and chemotherapy-related cognitive impairment. Key Findings 70-80% during treatment: The review cites chemotherapy-induced peripheral neurotoxicity as affecting about 70-80% of patients during treatment. …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry found unexpected bilingualism in 38.7% of autistic children aged 2-6, about 4.4 times the rate in typically developing peers, with caregivers reporting screen media as the usual source. Key Findings 38.7% of autistic children showed unexpected bilingualism: Using a language absent from the …
TL;DR: A 2026 pilot study in Food & Function found that one month of extra virgin olive oil intake was associated with higher resting-state occipital functional connectivity than regular olive oil in 9 healthy young adults. Key Findings Occipital connectivity was the imaging endpoint: The 9-person neuroimaging substudy came from a larger randomized crossover trial …
