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How Your Brain Detects Patterns without Conscious Thought
The human brain is constantly picking up patterns in everyday experiences — and can do so without conscious thought, finds a study of neuronal activity in people who had electrodes implanted in their brain tissue for medical reasons. The study shows that neurons in key brain regions combine information on what occurs and when, allowing the brain to pick out the patterns in events as they unfold over time. That helps the brain to predict coming events, the authors say. The work was published today in Nature. “The brain does a lot of things that we are not consciously aware of,” says Edvard Moser, a neuroscientist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim.
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Combating Misinformation Runs Deeper Than Swatting Away ‘Fake News’
Americans are increasingly concerned about online misinformation, especially in light of recent news that the Justice Department seized 32 domains linked to a Russian influence operation interfering in U.S. politics, including the 2024 presidential election. Policy makers, pundits and the public widely accept that social media users are awash in “fake news,” and that these false claims shape everything from voting to vaccinations. In striking contrast, however, the academic research community is embroiled in a vigorous debate about the extent of the misinformation problem.
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Memory Loss Isn’t the Only Sign of Dementia
... In a study published last year, researchers found that people with dementia experienced slight drops in extroversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness before they showed any signs of cognitive impairment. Those personality changes accelerated as more dementia symptoms emerged, said Angelina Sutin, a professor of behavioral sciences and social medicine at Florida State University, who led the study. While the research was conducted using a standardized personality test, there are a few changes in everyday behavior that you can watch out for. A decrease in extroversion, for example, may look like a person becoming more withdrawn, or a narrowing of their social circle.
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The Double-edged Nature of Parenting, Mental Health and Artificial Intelligence
There are two sides to every coin — and sometimes our strengths become weaknesses. This hour, TED speakers explore the mixed blessings and volatile flip sides of mental health, parenting and AI. Guests include developmental psychologist Yuko Munakata, entrepreneur Andy Dunn and AI researcher Yejin Choi.
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3 Reasons You’re Not Getting Promoted
Missing out on a promotion stings. No one enjoys coming in second (or third, or fourth). As a psychology professor at New York University who’s helped hundreds of people navigate conflicts in the workplace, I’ve seen the frustration people experience when they just can’t seem to land a promotion. They tend to wonder: What have I been doing wrong? The reasons why people fail to land a promotion are often complex and hard to communicate. But there are patterns and commonalities that can help you understand what happened and what you can do next.
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Human Reviewers Can’t Keep Up With Police Bodycam Videos. AI Now Gets the Job
"Who will watch the watchmen?" In the age of police body cameras, the answer may be "artificial intelligence." ... "For us, it's a game changer," says Jennifer Eberhardt, a psychology professor at Stanford whose work on race and crime won her a MacArthur "genius grant." She leads a team of researchers who used AI to help review and analyze videos of nearly 600 traffic stops by Oakland police. "We could look at the first 27 seconds of the stop, the first roughly 45 words that the officer spoke, and we could use this model to predict whether that driver was going to be handcuffed, searched or arrested by the end of the stop," she says.
