Monoamine oxidases (MAOs) are two enzymes (MAO-A and MAO-B) which inactivate the so called monoamine transmitter substances serotonin, noradrenalin and dopamine. The brain systems which utilise those transmitters are of great importance for the fine-tuning of personality traits, as well as state-dependent features such as mood, appetite, attention, etc.

In a finding that sheds new light on the neural mechanisms involved in social behavior, neuroscientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have pinpointed the brain structure responsible for our sense of personal space.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the Plexus Institute (Plexus) today announce results from an analysis of a multifaceted methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) prevention program that employed positive deviance (PD), a novel approach to social and behavioral change, to trigger significant reductions in MRSA incidence ranging from 26 to 62 percent at participating hospitals.

While science tries to understand the stuff dreams are made of, humans, from cultures all over the world, continue to believe that dreams contain important hidden truths, according to newly published research.

Researchers have mapped the brain regions that process social standing and money rewards, yielding new insights that they said will aid understanding of the basis of social behaviors.

A new study examining social behaviour suggests certain individuals are genetically programmed to cheat and often will do… providing they can get away with it.

Research tends to focus on the positives of self-monitoring - a personality characteristic that accounts for how attuned individuals are to societal conventions as well as the degree to which “appropriateness” controls their behavior and moderates how they present themselves to others.

Our belief in power hierarchies is important in how we view and treat people. This is shown in a dissertation by Alexandra Snellman from Uppsala University that examines how racist and sexist prejudice creates social hierarchies and ethnic discrimination in various situations.

Respiration deficiencies in mitochondria, the cell’s powerhouses, are associated with changed social behavior and spatial memory in laboratory mice, report scientists at the American Society for Cell Biology 47th Annual Meeting.

Our increasingly interconnected world has made it easier for information and disease to spread. However a new study from Harvard University and Cornell University shows that fewer “degrees of separation” can make social networks too weak to disseminate behavioral change.

When it comes to their social behavior, people sometimes act like monkeys, or more specifically, like rhesus macaques, a type of monkey that shares with humans strong tendencies for nepotism and political maneuvering, according to research by Dario Maestripieri, an expert on primate behavior and an Associate Professor in Comparative Human Development and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Chicago.

The theory of loss aversion is used in many contexts to explain why potential loss has a greater mitigating influence on behavior than potential gain. In trading situations, consumers will most likely opt to keep what they have, tending to place a larger value on the items already in their possession (also known as the “endowment effect”).