Trends in Cognitive Sciences最新文献

It has been argued that social processes are relevant to belief formation and maintenance and thence to persecutory delusions - the fixed false beliefs that others intend harm. We call this the social turn in delusions research. It suggests that paranoia is the purview of a specialized mechanism for coalitional cognition - thinking about group membership and reputation management. Here, we suggest instead that a simpler, pseudosocial learning mechanism may underwrite persecutory and other delusions. We make our case in terms of computations (prediction, not coalition), algorithm (association rather than recursion), and implementation (dopaminergic domain-general rather than social-specific regions). We conclude with suggestions for adversarial collaboration that will clarify the contributions of domain-general versus social-specific processes to delusions.

The vision of a universal artificial intelligence (AI) tutor has remained elusive, despite decades of effort. Could large language models (LLMs) be the game-changer? We overview novel issues arising from developing a nationwide AI tutor. We highlight the practical questions that point to specific gaps in our scientific understanding of the learning process.

Social insects rely on multiple communication channels. These channels have traditionally been considered innate, eliciting stereotyped responses. However, recent research has shown that cognitive modulation occurs in communication contexts long assumed to be entirely genetically encoded, thus revealing a previously unrecognized cognitive plasticity in social insect communication.

The role of dopamine in signalling reward prediction errors is well established, but its involvement in more complex decision-making processes is less clear. In recent work, Kocharian et al. demonstrate that dopamine also encodes imagined outcomes and decision confidence, revealing a richer, more nuanced role in learning and behaviour.

Although cultural differences in cognition and behavior are well-documented, collecting data from multiple cultural samples to explore relevant cognitive processes remains challenging. Rahal and Schulze Spüntrup address this by applying webcam-based eye-tracking to adults from 20 countries, revealing cultural variations in the cognitive processes underlying in-group favoritism during social decision-making.

Serotonergic psychedelics are being explored as treatments for a range of psychiatric conditions. Promising results in mood disorders indicate that their effects on emotional processing may play a central role in their therapeutic potential. However, mechanistic and clinical studies paint a complex picture of the impact of psychedelics on emotions and mood. Here, we review recent findings on the effects of psychedelics on emotion, emotional empathy, and mood. We discuss how psychedelics may impact long-term emotion management strategies, the significance of challenging experiences, and neuroplastic changes. More precise characterization of emotional states and greater attention to the temporal dynamics of psychedelic-induced effects will be critical for clarifying their mechanisms of action and optimizing their therapeutic impact.

The cognitive neuroscience community using M/EEG has not converged on measures of task-related inter-regional brain connectivity that generalize across tasks and laboratories. We call for community-driven efforts to systematically test and validate connectivity metrics using shared datasets and protocols, aiming to establish robust, replicable frameworks for cognitive and clinical applications.