Articles in 2022

It is seemingly in the interest of high-income countries to prioritize vaccinating their own population against COVID-19, despite it being immoral. However, mathematical modelling by Ye et al.¹ shows that this approach offers only limited, short-term benefits, whereas equitable vaccine distribution would substantially curb the emergence and spread of new variants.

In ten contributions, mathematical modellers, public health officials, intellectual property experts and activists explain how vaccine inequities continue to fuel the pandemic, and how multilateral cooperation can help.

Low-carbon innovations in technology and behaviour are increasingly prevalent, but they are not always equitable. This Review examines how such innovations can introduce and perpetrate inequalities, and discusses ways to ensure that a low-carbon future is both sustainable and equitable.

Using data-driven mathematical modelling that combines viral evolution with epidemiological dynamics, Ye et al. show that COVID-19 vaccine inequity leads to the emergence of new variants and new waves of the pandemic, while equitable allocation of vaccine doses reduces case counts and fatalities in all countries.

Ciranka, Linde-Domingo et al. show that inference of transitive orderings from pairwise relations benefits from a seemingly biased learning strategy, where observers update their belief about one of the pair members but not the other.

Similarities and differences between deep learning models and primate vision have been the focus of recent research. Audition is comparatively less-studied. A new report describes the emergence of human-like auditory perception in a deep neural network, and suggests a promising way to relate perceptual behaviour to specific aspects of the environment.

On the occasion of our fifth anniversary, we look back and reflect on the journal’s first five years of life.

To celebrate our 5th anniversary, present and past editors of the journal discuss some of their favourite papers and highlight what made them stand out.

Francl and McDermott use deep neural networks to reveal the behavioural phenotype of systems optimized for tasks in simulated environments, showing that many characteristics of human sound localization are adapted to real-world environments.

Human behaviour is complex and multifaceted, and is studied by a broad range of disciplines across the social and natural sciences. To mark our 5th anniversary, we asked leading scientists in some of the key disciplines that we cover to share their vision of the future of research in their disciplines. Our contributors underscore how important it is to broaden the scope of their disciplines to increase ecological validity and diversity of representation, in order to address pressing societal challenges that range from new technologies, modes of interaction and sociopolitical upheaval to disease, poverty, hunger, inequality and climate change. Taken together, these contributions highlight how achieving progress in each discipline will require incorporating insights and methods from others, breaking down disciplinary silos.

Koops et al. ran four field experiments in Guinea and found that chimpanzees did not independently (re-)innovate nut cracking. Their null results are consistent with the hypothesis that chimpanzee nut cracking is a product of social learning.

To interact safely with our environment, we must be able to judge our confidence in what we perceive. But what cues do we use to compute perceptual confidence? Geurts et al.¹ decode brain activity and show that perceptual confidence is based on the distribution of sensory uncertainty, combining uncertainty driven by the input and the visual system.

Draschkow et al. test working memory in virtual reality following self-movement and find that multiple representations of spatial environment are used to maintain and select visual contents in working memory.

In a systematic review and meta-analysis of 45 studies, covering a sample of 116,999 individuals across 22 countries, McGuire et al. find that cash transfers improve the subjective well-being and mental health of recipients in low- and middle-income countries.

Adolescents in Norway reported more depressive symptoms and less optimism during the COVID-19 pandemic, while alcohol and cannabis use decreased. Girls, younger individuals and those from low socio-economic backgrounds showed more adverse changes.

In two audit experiments with politicians and students, and an online experiment, Kirgios et al. show that women and racial/ethnic minorities seeking help are more likely to receive support when they explicitly mention their marginalized demographic identity.

What neural computations underlie the human sense of confidence? Geurts et al. show that subjective confidence is based on a probability distribution represented in cortical activity.

Serino et al. studied the sense of agency for actions generated via a brain–machine interface. They show that primary motor cortex encodes not only motor and sensory signals, but also subjective agency signals, enabling improved brain–machine interface proficiency.