Researchers decode neural pathways of cognitive flexibility across species
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 1-Nov-2025 13:11 ET (1-Nov-2025 17:11 GMT/UTC)
Scientists have mapped the neural mechanisms that allow organisms to generalize learning from past experiences to new situations. The comprehensive review traces these pathways from hippocampus to cortex across rodents, primates, and humans, offering new insights into how different brain regions cooperate to create flexible thinking.
The voices of 643 UK victims and survivors of child sexual abuse are at the centre of a new report launched today (19 May), which found they are less likely to receive support than victims in Australia, Canada, New Zealand or the US. The Our Voice Survivors in the UK report is being presented for the first time at Anglia Ruskin University’s IPPPRI25 conference in the UK.
Women with a higher McCance Brain Care Score (BCS) – a score that measures physical, lifestyle, and social-emotional factors – have a lower risk of experiencing a stroke or other cerebrovascular event reducing blood flow to the brain, according to a new study conducted by experts from Mass General Brigham. The results are published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Floods are among the most destructive natural hazards, causing billions of dollars in economic loss each year. By 2050, flood-related losses in the United States are expected to increase by 26%, with the share of properties facing at least a 1% annual chance of moderate to major flooding rising from 9% to 10%.
Though flooding is a widespread and relatively common hazard in the U.S., not all communities experience flood risks in the same way. In a study published in Natural Hazards, a Princeton-led research team examined the relationship between social vulnerability and flood risk, providing valuable insights into how flood impacts vary across different social and economic contexts.
Animal abduction: On Panama’s Jicarón island, biologists documented five male capuchin monkeys carrying at least eleven different infant howler monkeys—a behavior never before seen in wild primates.
Rise and spread: The sightings were remotely recorded by over 85 camera traps, which allowed scientists to pinpoint the origin and subsequent spread of this social tradition over a 15-month period. (See interactive timeline https://www.ab.mpg.de/671374/Capuchin-tool-use/interspecies-abduction-tradition).
Novel animal tradition: The research offers the first known documentation of a cultural tradition in which animals repeatedly abduct and carry infants of another species—without any clear benefit to themselves.
Research collaboration: The study was led by a team from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB) in Germany, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama, Universidad del Rosario in Colombia and Ithaca College in the United States.
Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute have shown that mice use chemical cues, including odours, to detect the social rank of an unfamiliar mouse and compare it to their own, using this information to determine their behaviour.