{"title":"A continuum of predictive control between motor and mental actions: language production as a test case","authors":"Elin Runnqvist , Christian A Kell","doi":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101573","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101573","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Research traditions have studied aspects of control from their respective perspectives, separating motor and cognitive actions. This becomes particularly evident in the field of language and speech motor control in which linguistic language production models leave sensorimotor aspects underspecified and speech production models largely ignore the linguistic processing that provides a speech motor goal in the first place. It would be surprising if the brain organized control of speaking in such a dichotomous way. Here, we review and discuss conceptual proposals and empirical evidence supporting a hierarchical control architecture that allows for an embedded control of both abstract language as well as concrete speech. We propose a control scheme that could explain inner speech, speech planning, speech production, and speech perception in a single model. We propose concrete study designs that may disprove our proposal.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56191,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences","volume":"65 ","pages":"Article 101573"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144633430","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The future of work loneliness research","authors":"Sarah Wright","doi":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101571","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101571","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This review focuses on recent developments in work loneliness research, specifically examining studies published between 2023 and early 2025. In this essay, I focus on the conceptualisation of work loneliness, distinguishing it as a unique experience embedded within the context of work relationships and environments. I also highlight ongoing measurement issues, including the conflation of loneliness with social isolation, which complicates both theoretical clarity and the creation of targeted interventions. I specifically examine recent studies that explore loneliness within remote and hybrid work environments. The essay explores emerging evidence on leadership behaviour, with recent research suggesting that empathic, empowering, and supportive leadership is associated with reduced work loneliness. Finally, I identify promising but preliminary research into relational substitutes, such as digital relational agents and identification with one's work role, as potential buffers against loneliness when interpersonal relationships are lacking.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56191,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences","volume":"65 ","pages":"Article 101571"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144631947","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Closed-loop perception: gaps between artificial intelligence and biology","authors":"Ehud Ahissar , Eldad Assa , Neomi Mizrachi , Guy Nelinger , Tchiya Ben-Joseph , Inbar Saraf-Sinik , Shachar Geiger , Alexander Rivkind","doi":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101572","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101572","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Biological perception is achieved via brain–world interactions, predominantly implemented within closed-loop systems that integrate sensory inputs and the motor actions used to acquire them. In contrast, current developments of artificial perception primarily exploit open-loop configurations. Lacking this dynamic interplay, artificial intelligence (AI) remains limited in interpreting real-world data. Here, we review the fundamental gaps between biological perception, as revealed through neuroscience research, and artificial perception, as currently implemented in AI systems. We conclude with two major recommendations for advancing AI: adopting event-based processing and integrating closed-loop architectures.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56191,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences","volume":"65 ","pages":"Article 101572"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144605070","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"What will it take to mitigate climate change? Maximizing norm transmission and potency for change-accelerating outcomes","authors":"Gregg Sparkman , Tabea Hoffmann","doi":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101570","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101570","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Social norms will be key in coordinating populations to mitigate climate change. But currently, people presume others are divided or tepid about key mitigation solutions, leading norms to fall short of motivating global action from individuals and institutions. What would it take to utilize norms effectively to address climate change? We review three budding lines of research that provide an answer. First, norm perceptions of entire populations can be changed through the intentional use of societal systems of norm transmission: our leaders, institutions, media, and social media. Second, norm interventions need to use potent, conformity-inducing content by focusing on malleable clusters of norms with identifiable norm referents, and steer attention to norm information where and when it best reflects proclimate sentiments. Third, we must use norm interventions to target change-accelerating outcomes, specifically to increase climate dialogue, promote relational organizing within one’s social network, and seed climate advocacy and protests.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56191,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences","volume":"65 ","pages":"Article 101570"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144579247","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Political philosophy and loneliness","authors":"Bouke de Vries, Sarah A Rezaieh","doi":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101568","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101568","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Loneliness has received little attention in philosophy compared to other academic disciplines, including within the subfield of political philosophy on which this article focuses. However, growing political concern — exemplified by initiatives like the UK’s <em>End Loneliness</em> campaign and Japan’s appointment of a Minister for Loneliness — along with the pioneering work of Kimberly Brownlee, has increased interest from political philosophers over the past decade. This review examines recent discussions at the intersection of political philosophy and loneliness, structured around three key themes: (i) the political challenges of loneliness, including its alleged links to extremism, misogyny, and social inequality; (ii) the extent of state responsibility in addressing loneliness; and (iii) the moral (un)desirability of various policy interventions aimed at mitigating loneliness, such as social policies, urban planning reforms, and digital solutions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56191,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences","volume":"65 ","pages":"Article 101568"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144563694","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An individual–collective–systemic behavioral climate intervention framework","authors":"Danielle Goldwert , Madalina Vlasceanu","doi":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101569","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101569","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Given the urgency of climate change, a rapidly growing body of research across the behavioral sciences has tested interventions aimed at stimulating proclimate behaviors. Here, we propose a framework conceptualizing this body of work at three levels of analysis, ranging from individual cognition to collective action and systemic change. At the individual level, interventions primarily target cognitive or affective processes to increase climate beliefs and stimulate pro-environmental behaviors. Effective interventions at this level include the decreasing of spatial, temporal, and social psychological distance of climate change. At the collective level, interventions aim to stimulate climate advocacy and civic engagement, overcoming social or political barriers to climate mitigation. Promising interventions at this level include emphasizing the efficacy and emotional benefits of collective action. At the systemic level, climate action can be facilitated through structural interventions overcoming behavioral barriers, interventions including policy innovations, infrastructure development, and algorithmic, entertainment, or educational deployment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56191,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences","volume":"65 ","pages":"Article 101569"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144481315","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Simone A Luchini , Emmanuelle Volle , Roger E Beaty
{"title":"The role of the default mode network in creativity","authors":"Simone A Luchini , Emmanuelle Volle , Roger E Beaty","doi":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101551","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101551","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The brain’s default mode network (DMN) is increasingly recognized as key to creative thinking. Early work laid the foundations for this understanding, allowing us to indirectly infer the DMN’s importance for creative thinking through correlational studies. More recently, research has aimed at providing a mechanistic explanation of the relationship between DMN and creativity. Here, we outline current trends in neuroscientific research of creativity, emphasizing recent insights on the role of the DMN. We highlight four promising research directions for advancing our understanding of the DMN’s role in creativity: (1) its causal involvement in creative thinking processes, (2) its contribution to the processes of remote associative thinking and (3) to the processes of creative idea evaluation, and (4) its capacity to functionally integrate diverse information from distant brain regions. We explore possible future directions in these lines of research toward a mechanistic understanding of how the DMN supports creativity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56191,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences","volume":"65 ","pages":"Article 101551"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144471685","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The default mode subnetworks’ involvement in diverse cognitive transitions suggests a role in external update of internal models","authors":"Ashley X Zhou , John Duncan , Daniel J. Mitchell","doi":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101567","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101567","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Default Mode Network (DMN), traditionally associated with internally oriented cognition, has been increasingly implicated in processing external stimuli that signal the need to update an internal mental model, defined as neural representations that simulate and predict relationships between elements that make up events. This review synthesizes recent findings on the DMN’s role in diverse cognitive transitions, including feature changes and event boundaries during movie watching, and externally cued task switches during complex behavioural paradigms. Studies using naturalistic stimuli reveal the functional specialization of DMN subnetworks: the medial temporal lobe subnetwork responds to location and temporal transitions, the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex subnetwork prefers social transitions, and the Core DMN exhibits generalised responses across all these transition types. Meanwhile, in task-based paradigms, the Core DMN is also activated during external task switches, compared to task repeats, both representing and dependent upon a hierarchical task structure, further underscoring DMN involvement in maintaining and updating mental models. We propose that the Core DMN binds information across DMN subnetworks into a hierarchically chunked internal model, where elements are organized into nested levels of abstraction, to provide context for evolving naturalistic experiences and a substrate to guide behaviour. This unifying framework highlights the DMN's integral role in context-dependent cognitive transitions, dynamically integrating internal and external representations during both active and passive states.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56191,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences","volume":"65 ","pages":"Article 101567"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144365560","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mario I Suárez , Kamden K Strunk , Kelly N Furr , Kristen L Tuxbury , Cammie Justus-Smith , Korinthia D Nicolai , Thea L Racelis , Michelle Frierson , Edgar Díaz , Obed Amoakoh Boateng , Jared P Grigg
{"title":"QuantCrit at the intersections: a systematic review of gender and sexuality in QuantCrit research","authors":"Mario I Suárez , Kamden K Strunk , Kelly N Furr , Kristen L Tuxbury , Cammie Justus-Smith , Korinthia D Nicolai , Thea L Racelis , Michelle Frierson , Edgar Díaz , Obed Amoakoh Boateng , Jared P Grigg","doi":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101549","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101549","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The use of QuantCrit and other approaches to centering racism in quantitative educational research has rapidly expanded. While both QuantCrit and Critical Race Theory call for intersectional analyses that account for multiple systems of marginalization, such as racism, white supremacism, genderism, misogyny, trans-antagonism, and heterosexism, gender and sexuality have tended to be emphasized less often. As a result, our research questions concerned whether and how QuantCrit researchers took up gender and sexuality in their work. We found that most authors relied on large-scale datasets, which limited their ability to critically engage with these concepts. We further found that when authors engaged gender, they most often conflated gender and legal sex. We further found relatively few examples that considered sexuality at all. We offer recommendations for QuantCrit scholars to better account for gender and sexuality and the intersecting systems of oppression that overlap at LGBTQ+ social locations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56191,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences","volume":"65 ","pages":"Article 101549"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144321299","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Functions of the posterior cingulate cortex and default network","authors":"Brett L Foster, Seth R Koslov","doi":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101560","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101560","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) is an intriguing yet understudied brain region implicated in diverse cognitive functions and neurological disorders. Progress in understanding the human PCC has been hindered by the absence of a clear rodent homolog, inconsistent lesion-behavior deficits in humans, and limitations in studying the region with noninvasive electrophysiological methods. However, the advent of functional neuroimaging has highlighted the PCC’s central role within the default mode network (DMN) and its broader functional role as an associative, transmodal, cortical region. Recent advances in precision imaging have further refined the functional neuroanatomy of the PCC, revealing its complex subregional organization and network connectivity profiles. For example, the PCC is a convergence point for dorsal executive and ventral mnemonic systems, with distinct subregions (dorsal PCC and ventral PCC) differentially contributing to cognitive control, decision-making, and episodic memory. This emphasis on higher-order cognition highlights the often-striking dissociation of the PCC/DMN from primary sensory-motor processing. However, emerging evidence suggests that the PCC operates at the apex of cortical processing hierarchies, supporting temporally extended cognitive behaviors while also integrating sensory updates relevant to ongoing tasks. This review synthesizes recent advances in understanding the human PCC, emphasizing its functional connections to various cognitive systems beyond the DMN and its relative separation, though not isolation, from primary sensory-motor systems. Together, these facets allow the PCC to support the representation of past and future behavioral scenarios by integrating prior experience with ongoing sensory feedback.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56191,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences","volume":"65 ","pages":"Article 101560"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144330203","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}