Scientists have identified mechanisms in the human brain that could help explain the phenomenon of the ‘Uncanny Valley’ – the unsettling feeling we get from robots and virtual agents that are too human-like. They have also shown that some people respond more adversely to human-like agents than others.

Virtual reality (VR) can identify early Alzheimer’s disease more accurately than ‘gold standard’ cognitive tests currently in use, suggests new research from the University of Cambridge.

Researchers have developed a method that could drastically accelerate the search for new drugs to treat mental health disorders such as schizophrenia.

A prescription drug to treat high blood pressure has shown promise against conditions such as Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and forms of dementia in studies carried out in mice and zebrafish at the University of Cambridge.

The first large-scale study of autism in China has revealed that around one in a hundred people in China has an autism spectrum condition – the same figure as found in the West.

People with heart disease are more likely to suffer from depression, and the opposite is also true. Now, scientists at the University of Cambridge believe they have identified a link between these two conditions: inflammation – the body’s response to negative environmental factors, such as stress. 

A report out today examines the factors that influence ‘maths anxiety’ among primary and secondary school students, showing that teachers and parents may inadvertently play a role in a child’s development of the condition, and that girls tend to be more affected than boys.

The debilitating behaviours and all-consuming thoughts, which affect people with severe obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), could be significantly improved with targeted deep brain stimulation, according to new research published today.

Young adults at risk of developing problems with addiction show key differences in an important region of the brain, according to an international team led by researchers at the University of Cambridge.