Social behavior and communication are key to building relationships in most species. Vasopressin, a neurochemical commonly known for regulating blood pressure and water balance, also plays a critical role in regulating social behavior and communication. Here, we show that deleting vasopressin receptors can lead to behavioral changes that are opposite of what is expected.

Have you ever seen a newborn baby seemingly aimlessly move their arms and legs? Even though babies at this stage have little understanding of the world or how to control their own bodies, babies wander and pursue various sensorimotor experiences by moving their limbs. This “sensorimotor wandering” contributes to early development in terms of learning the basis of how to control one’s own body.

Pain is the main reason people attend an emergency department. Our study examined the effect of a therapy dog visit on reducing patient pain in an ED. We found that pain improved after the dog visit compared to no change in control patients. Patient anxiety, depression, and well-being also improved. These findings help to establish the potential value of therapy dogs in an emergency setting.

What is going on with SARS-CoV-2 infection and your brain? Even in mild infection there may be neurological injury that affects recovery. In our study, brain tissue recovered from SARS-CoV-2 infected non-human primates revealed microbleeds, neuron injury and death, and evidence of brain hypoxia, all of which may cause long-lasting neurological symptoms after infection.

The exact interplay between receptors and their downstream signaling influences essentially all physiological functions. But how can a cell discriminate between hundreds of different receptors that share the same downstream signaling transducers? We find receptor-associated independent signaling nanodomains (RAINs) around single receptors which can specifically switch signaling cascades on or off.

Instability is AI's Achilles’ heel. We show the following paradox: there are cases where stable and accurate AI exists, but it can never be trained by any algorithm. We initiate a foundations theory for when AI can be trained - such a programme will shape political and legal decision-making in the coming decades, and have a significant impact on markets for AI technologies.