CSIR-Human Resource Development Centre (CSIR-HRDC), Ghaziabad, will be organising a programme on Excellence in Leadership on 19-20 July 2021. Keynote Address: Dr Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog Special Interactive Session: Prof. Arumugam Manthiram (Member of Nobel Laureate John B. Goodenough’s team), The University of Texas at Austin http://csirnews.niscair.res.in/home/article/247 Continue reading Programme on Excellence in Leadership by CSIR-HRDC

Multiple theories have proposed that increasing central arousal through the brain’s locus coeruleus—norepinephrine system may facilitate cognitive control and memory. However, the role of the arousal system in emotion regulation is less well understood. Pupil diameter is a proxy to infer upon the central arousal state. We employed an emotion regulation paradigm with a combination of design features that allowed us to dissociate regulation from … Continue reading Pupil dilation predicts individual self-regulation success across domains

Previous research indicates that excessive fear is a critical feature in anxiety disorders; however, recent studies suggest that disgust may also contribute to the etiology and maintenance of some anxiety disorders. It remains unclear if differences exist between these two threat-related emotions in conditioning and generalization. Evaluating different patterns of fear and disgust learning would facilitate a deeper understanding of how anxiety disorders develop. In … Continue reading Generalization gradients for fear and disgust in human associative learning

Humans frequently cooperate for collective benefit, even in one-shot social dilemmas. This provides a challenge for theories of cooperation. Two views focus on intuitions but offer conflicting explanations. The Social Heuristics Hypothesis argues that people with selfish preferences rely on cooperative intuitions and predicts that deliberation reduces cooperation. The Self-Control Account emphasizes control over selfish intuitions and is consistent with strong reciprocity—a preference for conditional … Continue reading Contextualised strong reciprocity explains selfless cooperation

Effective curiosity-driven learning requires recognizing that the value of evidence for testing hypotheses depends on what other hypotheses are under consideration. Do we intuitively represent the discriminability of hypotheses? Here we show children alternative hypotheses for the contents of a box and then shake the box (or allow children to shake it themselves) so they can hear the sound of the contents. We find that children … Continue reading Children’s exploratory play tracks the discriminability of hypotheses

Semantic categorization is a fundamental ability in language as well as in interaction with the environment. However, it is unclear what cognitive and neural basis generates this flexible and context dependent categorization of semantic information. We performed behavioral and fMRI experiments with a semantic priming paradigm to clarify this. Participants conducted semantic decision tasks in which a prime word preceded target words, using names of … Continue reading Distinctive responses in anterior temporal lobe

Dr Vinay K. Nandicoori is the new Director of the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad. He is a well-known molecular biologist and has been a scientist at the DBT-National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi. Dr Nandicoori’s research interest extensively spans molecular signalling networks in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the micro-organism that causes TB. His research has found national and international relevance and recognition. His … Continue reading The new CCMB Director

The Swiss government has dedicated its Science Day in honour of the Missile Man and former President Late A P J Abdul Kalam for his vast expertise in science and technology. The father of India’s missile programme had visited Switzerland back in 2006. Upon his arrival, Switzerland declared May 26th as Science Day. This is an inspiration for many Indian and Swiss scientists as Dr. Kalam … Continue reading Switzerland dedicates its Science Day to former president Abdul Kalam

A study led by scientists at the American Museum of Natural History has resolved a long-standing controversy about an extinct “horned” crocodile that likely lived among humans in Madagascar. Based on ancient DNA, the research shows that the horned crocodile was closely related to “true” crocodiles, including the famous Nile crocodile, but on a separate branch of the crocodile family tree. The study, published today … Continue reading Extinct ‘horned’ crocodile gets new spot in the tree of life

India is a country which is known for its culture as well as many great men.  India is the largest country in the Indian subcontinent located in South Asia.  Where many great scholars have been born, these great people have made an unprecedented contribution in tying India in one sutra, after which India is counted among the great countries today.  It is due to these … Continue reading Srinivasa Ramanujan: India’s greatest mathematician