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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

How your brain stays on task when sizing someone up

Two brain regions help humans to filter out irrelevant information and concentrate on the right stuff in social situations.
Two businesswomen shaking hands in an office.

Social judgement can be impeded by disrupting two specific areas of the brain. Credit: Getty

A person deciding which candidate to hire for a job or which friend to call for help has a tricky cognitive task: focusing on the important information about the other individuals, while ignoring the irrelevant information. Now scientists have identified two regions in the brain that are crucial for sifting out the right details1.

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Nature 614, 10 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00135-9

References

  1. Mahmoodi, A. et al. Neuron https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2022.12.030 (2023).

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