Metabolic considerations for cognitive modeling - Volume 49

Affective touch has long been recognised as fundamental to bonding, emotional regulation, and social development, yet its role as a distinct form of m…

Estimates group-, subgroup-, and individual-level dynamic structures from multivariate intensive longitudinal data using continuous-time state-space models. The subgrouping procedure combines iterativ...

An updated view of categorization reflects the modern understanding that the nervous system is more of a prediction engine than a filing cabinet.

Huang et al. show that prolonged exhalation increases risky decisions by enhancing reward sensitivity and cardiac parasympathetic activity. Individuals with greater parasympathetic upregulation exhibi...

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 05 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02533-1Li, Marble et al. examine how moment-to-moment fluctuations in arousal optimize behaviour by signalling environmental transitions and facilitate rapid adjustments of mental context.

This Review provides an overview of the interplay between host diet and the gut microbiota, and how this affects brain function.

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 01 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02490-9The authors synthesize the evidence on the links between interoception and self-harm and suicide. The results are heterogeneous for the four examined dimensions of interoception. Neural evidence points to insula and prefrontal involvement, though still preliminary.

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 01 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02498-1Self-injurious thoughts and behaviours are difficult to predict and treat. A meta-analysis by Liu et al. examines how interoception (the sensing of internal bodily signals) relates to self-injury risk, and points to bodily trust as a potential protective factor.

Frequently ignored bodily rhythms may be skewing neuroscience experiments

Youth Scientific Council on Adolescence members Brooke Smith, Danari Golden, Layah Belay Simmons, and Ananshah Sing who talk with professor Hannah Schacter from Wayne State University in Detroit about...

Socioeconomic factors top the list of influences on children’s brain structure and function

YouTube video by UCLA Center for the Developing Adolescent

The heartbeat evoked potential (HEP) is an electrophysiological indicator of cortical processing of cardiac signals and a putative neural index of cardiac interoception. Various clinical conditions…

Interoceptive interventions offer a promising avenue for improving mental health conditions, which commonly feature bodily or interoceptive symptoms. …

Schulz et al. show that anhedonia in depression, as measured by a scale often equated with loss of pleasure, reflects reduced anticipation of food rewards rather than impaired enjoyment itself. Linking metabolic signals to reward behavior and depressive symptoms highlights the gut-brain axis as a potential target in depression.

Stress exposure may influence the pace of pubertal and brain development; however, empirical findings are mixed, with evidence for both acceleration a…

Breit and Tsai provide a concise overview of the role of GDF15 as a signalling molecule in the context of metabolic health and disease.

This study shows that beta-band suppression time-locked to the heartbeat is a reliable neural marker of interoceptive processing, with a distinct fronto-cingulo-somatosensory signature that different...

Rao and Xue discuss emerging evidence in mice and humans of circadian-independent regulation of metabolic responses by light.

Neuropsychopharmacology - Mesocorticolimbic connectivity and motivational sensitivity: sex-specific effects of puberty in early adolescence

The amygdala shows abnormal metabolism in depression, a disorder marked by altered emotion, motivation, and learning. Yet its causal role in these pro…