Read the full article here: https://elifesciences.org/articles/65661 Self-control dilemmas typically involve tradeoffs between short-term, hedonic considerations and longer-term or more abstract standards and values. For example, dietary decisions often require weighing the immediate pleasure of a tasty treat against personal or societal goals favoring healthy eating. Understanding when, why, and how people choose normatively-preferred responses (e.g., … More New paper on how we think about “self-control” in the brain

Exciting new paper on the role of serotonin availability in our ability to learn about social ranks. Lower serotonin levels in a critical brain region (dorsal raphe nucleus) were better for learning about social hierarchies (social dominance). This link was specific for social learning contexts, as shown in a non-social control task. Learning about one’s … More Congrats to Remi Janet on his new paper on social dominance learning!

Congrats to Victoria Brassard-Monahan and Rola Yaman on the successful completion of their honours theses! Victoria and Rola have completed their independent research projects with flying colors. Thank you both for being a part of the lab for the previous year and contributing to our research!

Check out the article in The Conversation

Imagining helping others increases prosocial intentions and behavior toward those individuals. But is this true for everyone? We used an imagined helping paradigm and a battery of prosocial measures to determine whether the prosocial benefits of imagination depend upon an individual’s general tendency to help others. We found that the effects of imagination on prosociality … More New paper on how imagining helping others can make you more altruistic

The project selected for funding looks into the potential of digital technology to protect people from the bodily effects of social isolation – experienced, for example, during the pandemic lockdowns. They aim to understand the multifaceted neurobiological changes that occur during isolation and test how virtual interactions – like video chats – can reduce them. … More We are among the labs at Queen’s that received $3 million from the New Frontiers in Research Fund programs for projects pushing the frontiers of knowledge and pioneering solutions to overcome challenges brought on by the pandemic.

Many of us are deeply affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. Please consider donating to an initiative created by The Ukrainian Canadian Club of Kingston. The initiative includes the city of Kingston, Queen’s University, and St. Lawrence College. It will provide emergency support for students from Ukraine. Please see the attached flyer for further … More Emergency Support for Students from Ukraine

Altruism is a fundamental building block of our society. Emerging evidence indicates a major role of acute stress and stress-related neuromodulators in social behavior and decision-making. How and through which mechanisms stress may impact altruism remains elusive. We observed that the stress hormone cortisol is linked to diminished altruistic behavior. This effect is mediated by … More New paper on how stress affects altruism and the brain’s self-control areas (especially in people who take others’ perspectives!)

People differ in their ability to navigate social landscapes and to build and maintain strong social ties. Why? The lab received a new SSHRC Institutional Grant (SIG) grant to investigate the role of social attention and social behavior outside of the laboratory. We will combine gaze behavior and measures of social behavior and social ties … More New SSHRC Grant on Social Attention in the Real World

We congratulate John-Dennis (Jack) Parsons on the successful oral defense of his M.Sc. thesis on neurobiomakers of dietary success! Covid-related restrictions on in-person testing made it difficult to realize the project, but Jack managed to pull it off! His oral examination committee congratulates him on this success.