Articles in 2024

Brus et al. show that modulation of slow oscillatory neural activity with non-invasive electrical stimulation of the prefrontal cortex can be used to modulate top-down control and behavioural performance in non-spatial attention.

The authors use several computational methods to investigate genetics signatures of assortative mating across behavioural and psychiatric traits, identifying signals for traits such as alcohol consumption traits, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder and Tourette syndrome, as well as complex interactions between assortative mating, socioeconomic status and participation bias.

Here Shoham and colleagues use deep learning algorithms to disentangle the contributions of visual, visual–semantic and semantic information in human face and object representations. Visual–semantic and semantic algorithms improve prediction of human representations.

A longitudinal study over 12 weeks used computational models on behavioural data from seven cognitive tasks while tracking participants’ mood, habits and activities to understand individual variability. The findings revealed that practice and emotional states significantly influenced various aspects of computational phenotypes, suggesting that apparent unreliability might actually uncover previously unnoticed patterns, supporting a dynamic perspective on cognitive diversity within individuals.

Much well-designed and preregistered research is conducted but never published. The reasons for these studies ending up in the ‘file drawer’ are varied. Making this research public would help us all to do better science.

Using large-scale global positioning system (GPS) mobility data, we examined the feasibility and societal impact of the ‘15-minute city’ model across US urban areas. Our findings highlight the environmental benefits of localized living but also its risk of intensifying socioeconomic segregation.

Using mobility data, the authors quantify usage patterns of so-called ‘15-minute cities’ and uncover a worrying trade-off: increased local usage correlates with higher experienced segregation for low-income residents.

Belonging is an essential part of human identity. But with belonging comes ‘otherness’ — the tendency to label ‘others’ on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, ability or some other dimension. To advance science, we need to recognize how otherness affects research and implement interventions to overcome the biases that it creates.

This Article makes the case for moving motor learning research outside the lab. Tsay and colleagues show that a large-scale citizen science approach can replicate established findings, reconcile conflicting ideas and identify key demographic predictors of successful motor learning.

The sense of belonging to a larger group is a central feature of humanity but its identification in Palaeolithic societies is challenging. Baker et al. use a pan-European dataset of personal ornaments to show that these markers of group identity form distinct clusters that cannot be explained simply by geographical proximity or shared biological descent.

The importance of reproducible scientific practices is widely acknowledged. However, limited resources and lack of external incentives have hindered their adoption. Here, we explore ways to promote reproducible science in practice.

Political polarization leads to distrust. In universities, this can lead to conflict or silence in classes and hinder learning and engagement. Faculty members and leaders can promote depolarization by encouraging constructive dialogue in and out of class, cultivating viewpoint diversity within boundaries and expanding civic spaces.

The study of personal ornaments worn by Ice Age European hunter-gatherers between 34,000 and 24,000 years ago identifies nine regional groups, which align with the known genetic diversity of that period.

Although action and motor imagery share similar population-wide neural responses in motor cortex, a subset of those responses exists in orthogonal action-unique and imagery-unique subspaces.

Positionality statements describe how researcher identities shape research processes. We must consider how these statements can enact harm upon marginalized researchers.

Nature Human Behaviour is partnering with the Institute for Replication for the large-scale reproduction and replication of our published research.

Leveraging over 2,000 data sessions from a citizen science website, this large-scale exploratory research study revealed demographic (age, sex and daily computer usage) and task features (task enjoyment and baseline movement times) that predicted the extent of successful sensorimotor adaptation in participants’ reaching movements after a visuomotor perturbation.