In two experiments, researchers find that introducing people to "mental models" about how mRNA vaccination works and how the body protects itself from foreign DNA can preemptively or reactively protect against misconceptions about mRNA vaccination changing a recipient’s DNA without repeating the misconceptions. 

A scientific study led by Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) and partly funded by the European Research Council (ERC) has determined that the size and composition of our social support networks directly influence how we perceive our body image. The findings could help us in treating conditions such as body dysmorphic disorder, anorexia, and other eating disorders.

About The Study: In this cohort of young adults, reducing social media use for 1 week was associated with reductions in symptoms of depression, anxiety, and insomnia; however, the durability of these therapeutic outcomes and their associations with behavior warrant further study, particularly in more diverse populations. 

Anna Parisi, substance use disorder and addictive behavior expert, reveals how mindfulness interventions may enhance awareness of one’s bodily sensations, and how this enhanced awareness may decrease the risk of opioid misuse in individuals experiencing chronic pain.

Although scientific research about consciousness has enjoyed a boom in the past two decades, one central question remains unanswered: What is the function of consciousness? Why did it evolve at all? The answers to these questions are crucial to understanding why some species (such as our own) became conscious while others (such as oak trees) did not. Furthermore, observing the brains of birds shows that evolution can achieve similar functional solutions to realize consciousness despite different structures. The working groups led by Professors Albert Newen and Onur Güntürkün at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, report their findings in a current special issue of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B from November 13, 2025.