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The brain uses a dual system for learning through trial and error, according to a new study in mice led by UCL researchers. This is the first time a second learning system has been identified, which could help explain how habits are formed, and provide a scientific basis for new strategies to address conditions related to habitual learning, such as addictions and compulsions.

Writing in The Conversation, Professor Ravi Das and PhD Candidate Rebecca Harding (UCL Division of Psychology and Language Sciences) explores whether a fast-acting psychedelic can help people reduce alcohol consumption. Psychedelics like LSD  and psilocybin  (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) are gaining  increasing attention in psychiatry.

Treatment with gabapentinoids, a class of epilepsy and anxiety drug, is not directly associated with an increased risk of self-harm, finds a study led by UCL researchers. However, rates of self-harm were higher before and shortly after treatment, highlighting the need for close monitoring of patients throughout their treatment journey, say the authors of the new study.

The intensification of existing farmland can sometimes be more harmful to local biodiversity than expanding the area covered by agricultural land, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. They showed that neither expansion nor intensification is consistently better for biodiversity, as it varies by factors including region, crop type and local vegetation.

The 'cell of origin' of the second most common lung cancer and the way that it becomes dominant in the lung have been discovered, in a new study in mice and humans from researchers at UCL, the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the University of Cambridge. The study, published in Science , found that a population of basal cells found in the trachea (windpipe) outcompetes other cell types and becomes dominant, eventually invading and occupying large areas of the lung.

Researchers at UCL have uncovered why individuals who experience anxiety and depression often struggle with persistent low self-belief in their abilities. A new study, published in Nature Communications , examined two large groups of people (230 and 278 participants) to measure their "confidence" when doing individual jobs and their "self-belief" when judging their overall performance of these individual jobs collectively.

Ketamine addiction is linked to high levels of physical health problems and psychological consequences, with nearly half of those affected not seeking support or treatment, reports a new study by UCL and University of Exeter researchers. The study, published in Addiction , is the largest to date to explore the experience of people currently living with ketamine addiction in-depth.

There is no difference over time in the spatial working memory of older people who have autistic traits and those who are neurotypical, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The new research, published in The Gerontologist , is the first study to explore age-related rate of decline in spatial working memory in older people who may be autistic.

People with Alzheimer's disease may retain their ability to empathise, despite declines in other social abilities, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The researchers found that people with Alzheimer's disease scored slightly higher on a measure of empathy than peers of the same age with mild cognitive impairment, despite scoring worse on other measures of social cognition such as recognising facial emotions and understanding the thoughts of others.

A team of scientists including UCL researchers has tested four anti-amyloid Alzheimer's therapeutics to find out how the drugs bind to toxic amyloid beta protein to tackle the disease. Using new, highly sensitive methods, the researchers detected and visualised how amyloid beta protein - a plaque that builds up in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease - binds to lecanemab, donanemab, gantenerumab and aducanumab.

Macaque mothers experience a short period of physical restlessness after the death of an infant, but do not show typical human signs of grief, such as lethargy and appetite loss, finds a new study by UCL anthropologists. Published in Biology Letters, the researchers found that bereaved macaque mothers spent less time resting (sleep, restful posture, relaxing) than the non-bereaved females in the first two weeks after their infants' deaths.

A team of researchers at UCL and UCLH have identified the key brain regions that are essential for logical thinking and problem solving. The findings, published in Brain, help to increase our understanding of how the human brain supports our ability to comprehend, draw conclusions, and deal with new and novel problems - otherwise known as reasoning skills.

The rapid rise of vaping that began when disposable e-cigarettes became popular in 2021 appears to have stalled in Great Britain, according to a new study by UCL researchers. The study, published in the journal Addiction and funded by Cancer Research UK, looked at survey data on vaping habits in England, Wales and Scotland before and after the UK Government announced plans to restrict vaping, including by banning disposable vapes, in January 2024.

The idea that dinosaurs were already in decline before an asteroid wiped most of them out 66 million years ago may be explained by a worsening fossil record from that time rather than a genuine dwindling of dinosaur species, suggests a new study led by UCL researchers. The study, published in  Current Biology , analysed the fossil record of North America in the 18 million years up to the asteroid impact at the end of the Cretaceous period (between 66 and 84 million years ago).

A new artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can help interpret and assess how well treatments are working for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) has been developed by UCL researchers. AI uses mathematical models to train computers using massive amounts of data to learn and solve problems in ways that can seem human, including to perform complex tasks like image recognition.

Differences in the distribution of certain proteins and markers in the brain may explain why some people first experience vision changes instead of memory loss in Alzheimer's disease, finds a new study by UCL researchers. Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) is a rare form of Alzheimer's disease that, rather than causing problems with memory, leads to difficulties with reading, navigating, and recognising objects.

An international team co-led by UCL researchers has estimated the distribution of matter in the universe and found that it supports the standard model of cosmology - much to the team's surprise. The Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS) observed large parts of the southern sky over eight years to gain insights into the distribution of matter in the universe.

Women have a higher proportion of key immune cells between puberty and menopause, which may be linked to the sex hormone oestrogen and explain why they are less susceptible to certain infectious diseases than men, according to a new study led by researchers at UCL. The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine , is one of the first to explore how sex chromosomes and sex hormones combine to influence the immune systems of healthy individuals across a wide range of ages and gender profiles 1 .

Many discs of gas and dust in which new planets are formed are much smaller than thought, according to a new study involving UCL's Dr Paola Pinilla. The research team used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to look at 73 protoplanetary discs in the Lupus region. They found that many young stars host modest discs of gas and dust, some as small as 1.2 astronomical units (an astronomical unit is the average distance from Earth to the sun).

Women experience a significant fall in earnings in the years following a menopause diagnosis, with more women stopping work and others working fewer hours, according to a new UCL study published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Economists at UCL, University of Bergen, Stanford University and University of Delaware calculated that women experience a 4.3% reduction in their earnings, on average, in the four years following a menopause diagnosis, with losses deepening to 10% by the fourth year.