Nature Search

Computations of uncertainty mediate acute stress responses in humans

Acute stress has broad physiological and behavioural consequences, yet the precise factors that generate stress responses are not known. Here, de Berker and colleagues demonstrate that acute stress responses dynamically track environmental uncertainty and predict ability to learn under uncertain threat.

Archy O. de Berker
Robb B. Rutledge
Sven Bestmann
ResearchOpen Access29 Mar 2016
Nature Communications

Volume: 7, P: 1-11
Computational signatures of uncertainty are reflected in motor cortex excitatory neurochemistry

Using computational modelling and neurochemical analysis, this study shows how motor cortex excitatory signals guide belief updating and adaptive learning in uncertain environments.

Nazia Jassim
Peter Thestrup Waade
Rebecca P. Lawson
ResearchOpen Access04 Nov 2025
Nature Communications

Volume: 16, P: 1-14
Blocking D2/D3 dopamine receptors in male participants increases volatility of beliefs when learning to trust others

Inferring other people’s intentions from their actions is essential for successful social engagement. Here, the authors show that in social contexts, dopamine D2 receptors are important in regulating uncertainty-driven belief updating.

Nace Mikus
Christoph Eisenegger
Michael Naef
ResearchOpen Access08 Jul 2023
Nature Communications

Volume: 14, P: 1-17
Subjective estimates of uncertainty during gambling and impulsivity after subthalamic deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease

Saee Paliwal
Philip E. Mosley
Klaas E. Stephan
ResearchOpen Access15 Oct 2019
Scientific Reports

Volume: 9, P: 1-16
Paranoia and belief updating during the COVID-19 crisis

Suthaharan et al. show that levels of paranoia increased in the general population during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, in association with more erratic belief updating. Government policies also played a role.

Praveen Suthaharan
Erin J. Reed
Philip R. Corlett
Research27 Jul 2021
Nature Human Behaviour

Volume: 5, P: 1190-1202
High-resolution mass measurements of single budding yeast reveal linear growth segments

Measuring the mass of individual microbial cells remains challenging. Here, the authors present a cell balance to monitor the proliferation of single budding yeast cells under culture conditions in real time, showing that single cells increase total mass in multiple linear segments of constant growth rates.

Andreas P. Cuny
K. Tanuj Sapra
Daniel J. Müller
ResearchOpen Access22 Jun 2022
Nature Communications

Volume: 13, P: 1-11
Adults with autism overestimate the volatility of the sensory environment

The authors address why the use of prior expectations might be compromised in autism, by using computational models and pupillometric markers of the neuromodulator noradrenaline. They show that by estimating the world to be more changeable than it really is, adults with autism have difficulty in learning what to expect.

Rebecca P Lawson
Christoph Mathys
Geraint Rees
Research31 Jul 2017
Nature Neuroscience

Volume: 20, P: 1293-1299
Quantitative time-resolved measurement of membrane protein–ligand interactions using microcantilever array sensors

Membrane proteins are central to many biological processes, but it is difficult to measure their interactions with other objects. Sensors based on arrays of resonating microcantilevers have now performed label-free and time-resolved measurements of the interactions between a protein receptor and a bacterial virus under physiological conditions.

Thomas Braun
Murali Krishna Ghatkesar
Martin Hegner
Research18 Jan 2009
Nature Nanotechnology

Volume: 4, P: 179-185
Moral dilemmas and trust in leaders during a global health crisis

During a pandemic, trust in leaders is affected by how they resolve moral dilemmas. Across 22 countries, leaders’ endorsement of instrumental harm reduced public trust, while endorsement of impartial beneficence increased trust.

Jim A. C. Everett
Clara Colombatto
Molly J. Crockett
Research01 Jul 2021
Nature Human Behaviour

Volume: 5, P: 1074-1088
Beliefs about bad people are volatile

Siegel et al. describe an asymmetric Bayesian updating mechanism for moral impression formation, which shows that beliefs about badly behaved agents are more uncertain and therefore more flexible than beliefs about well-behaved agents.

Jenifer Z. Siegel
Christoph Mathys
Molly J. Crockett
Research17 Sept 2018
Nature Human Behaviour

Volume: 2, P: 750-756
Evidence for surprise minimization over value maximization in choice behavior

Philipp Schwartenbeck
Thomas H. B. FitzGerald
Karl Friston
ResearchOpen Access13 Nov 2015
Scientific Reports

Volume: 5, P: 1-14
Diminished pain sensitivity mediates the relationship between psychopathic traits and reduced learning from pain

Higher levels of psychopathic traits were associated with reduced pain sensitivity as well as a greater tendency to ignore new evidence and maintain prior expectations in pain learning situations.

Dimana V. Atanassova
Christoph Mathys
Inti A. Brazil
ResearchOpen Access14 Sept 2024
Communications Psychology

Volume: 2, P: 1-12
Inertial picobalance reveals fast mass fluctuations in mammalian cells

A picobalance consisting of an optically excited microcantilever has been developed and used to measure the masses of individual healthy and virus-infected cells at high temporal and mass resolutions in culture conditions.

David Martínez-Martín
Gotthold Fläschner
Daniel J. Müller
Research26 Oct 2017
Nature

Volume: 550, P: 500-505
Neandertal cannibalism and Neandertal bones used as tools in Northern Europe

Hélène Rougier
Isabelle Crevecoeur
Johannes Krause
ResearchOpen Access06 Jul 2016
Scientific Reports

Volume: 6, P: 1-11

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