Salk study pinpoints a pathway between two brain regions responsible for driving social isolation-related alcohol consumption in mice. The same pathway has opposing outcomes in male and female mice—activating that pathway increases alcohol consumption in male mice but decreases it in females. Findings may be used to improve risk assessment and treatment strategies for alcohol use disorder, and highlight the importance of sex as a key variable in designing optimal therapies and interventions.

Intelligent people tend to perform better at school and at work, as numerous studies have shown. But what happens in domains where incentives such as good grades or financial rewards don’t apply, and where socio-economic status is not a significant factor? Wine knowledge is a case in point. Intelligence researcher Maximilian Krolo of Saarland University has investigated whether intelligence can predict the acquisition of deep knowledge in a specialized domain. The findings have now been published in the journal Intelligence & Cognitive Abilities in an article co-authored with Professor of Psychology Timothy C. Bates of the University of Edinburgh.

Envy plays a greater role when resources are allocated through majority voting than when we make decisions individually. This is shown by new research from Linköping University, Sweden. According to the researchers, the explanation may be that our sense of personal responsibility diminishes when an individual vote is unlikely to determine the outcome.