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Most neurons possess a single, nonmotile cilium that projects out from the cell surface. These microtubule-based organelles are important in brain development and neurogenesis; however, their function in mature neurons is unknown. Cilia express a complement of proteins distinct from other neuronal compartments, one of which is the somatostatin receptor subtype SST 3 . We show here that SST 3 is critical for object recognition memory in mice. sst3 knock-out mice are severely impaired in discriminating novel objects, whereas they retain normal memory for object location. Further, systemic injection of an SST 3 antagonist (ACQ090) disrupts recall of familiar objects in wild-type mice. To examine mechanisms of SST 3 , we tested synaptic plasticity in CA1 hippocampus. Electrically evoked long-term potentiation (LTP) was normal in sst3 knock-out mice, while adenylyl cyclase/cAMP-mediated LTP was impaired. The SST 3 antagonist also disrupted cAMP-mediated LTP. Basal cAMP levels in hippocampal lysate were reduced in sst3 knock-out mice compared with wild-type mice, while the forskolin-induced increase in cAMP levels was normal. The SST 3 antagonist inhibited forskolin-stimulated cAMP increases, whereas the SST 3 agonist L-796,778 increased basal cAMP levels in hippocampal slices but not hippocampal lysate. Our results show that somatostatin signaling in neuronal cilia is critical for recognition memory and suggest that the cAMP pathway is a conserved signaling motif in cilia. Neuronal cilia therefore represent a novel nonsynaptic compartment crucial for signaling involved in a specific form of synaptic plasticity and in novelty detection.

The preference for morality in others is regarded as a dominant factor in person perception. Moral traits are thought to foster liking, and immoral traits are thought to foster disliking, irrespective of the context in which they are embedded. We report the results of four studies that oppose this view. Using both explicit and implicit measures, we found that the preference for morality vs. immorality in others is conditional on the evaluator's current goals. Specifically, when immorality was conducive to participants' current goals, the preference for moral vs. immoral traits in others was eliminated or reversed. The preferences for mercifulness vs. mercilessness (experiment 1), honesty vs. dishonesty (experiment 2), sexual fidelity vs. infidelity (experiment 3), and altruism vs. selfishness (experiment 4) were all found to be conditional. These findings oppose the consensus view that people have a dominant preference for moral vs. immoral traits in others. Our findings also speak to nativist and empiricist theories of social preferences and the stability of the "social contract" underlying productive human societies.

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The Affect Misattribution Procedure (AMP) is a measure of implicit evaluations, designed to index the automatic (unintentional) retrieval of evaluative knowledge. The AMP effect consists in participants evaluating neutral target stimuli more positively when preceded by positive primes and more negatively when preceded by negative primes. Hughes et al. (2022) questioned the automaticity of the AMP based on an awareness effect, i.e., the finding that AMP effects were larger when participants indicated that their response was influenced by the prime than when they did not. Here we present seven experiments (six preregistered; N = 2,350) investigating the nature of the awareness effect and, more broadly, the automaticity features of the AMP. In Experiments 1–4, the awareness effect was robust but highly variable as a function of procedural changes and stimulus valence. Critically, Experiments 5–7 provided evidence for an alternative explanation of the awareness effect, namely that awareness can be the outcome, rather than the cause, of evaluative congruency between primes and responses: Awareness effects emerged even under conditions that made it impossible for awareness to contribute to AMP effects, including when participants judged influence awareness for third parties or primes were presented post-hoc, following influence judgments. Finally, increasing evaluative strength of the primes increased participants’ tendency to misattribute AMP effects to the influence of target stimuli. Together, these findings support the construct validity of the AMP as a measure of implicit evaluations by suggesting that AMP effects are unintentional and can create awareness effects rather than vice versa.

Women in academia receive fewer prestigious awards than their male counterparts. Why this gender gap emerges, however, remains poorly understood. Thus, we tested multiple hypotheses about the proximate cause of the gender gap in award prestige. Our findings suggest that the gender gap in award prestige may emerge in part from gender schemas that portray women as warmer and less competent than men. Specifically, our results are consistent with the hypothesis that gender schemas lead to women's papers receiving fewer citations than men's papers, which in turn results in more prestigious awards for men than for women. Additionally, our results suggest that gender disparities in awards and citations may reinforce each other. Practical implications for promoting gender equality in academic awards are discussed.

Flow is a subjective state characterized by immersion and engagement in one’s current activity. The benefits of flow for productivity and health are well-documented, but a rigorous description of the flow-generating process remains elusive. Here we develop and empirically test a theory of flow’s computational substrates: the informational theory of flow. Our theory draws on the concept of mutual information, a fundamental quantity in information theory that quantifies the strength of association between two variables. We propose that the mutual information between desired end states and means of attaining them — $$I({M;E})$$ I ( M ; E ) — gives rise to flow. We support our theory across five experiments (four preregistered) by showing, across multiple activities, that increasing $$I({M;E})$$ I ( M ; E ) increases flow and has important downstream benefits, including enhanced attention and enjoyment. We rule out alternative constructs including alternative metrics of associative strength, psychological constructs previously shown to predict flow, and various forms of instrumental value.

Is there a psychological link between physical and social warmth? The Williams and Bargh (2008) coffee study is one data point among many that bear on this question. Since its publication there has been a surge of further research on the association between physical and social warmth, especially in neuroscience and medical science. As a result, there is now an array of evidence relevant to (1) the reality of the physical-social warmth pathway and (2) its possible anatomical location and neurochemical mechanisms.The latest data point in this literature is a particularly important one: Chabris, Heck, Mandart, Benjamin, and Simons (2019) attempted replication of the original work of Williams and Bargh (2008). Because replication is so essential to the scientific process, Chabris et al.'s (2019) findings demand careful consideration. To that end, we situate Chabris et al.'s (2019) findings in the broader literature by providing a summary of the range of evidence bearing on the warmth priming effect, and offer some thoughts as to why Chabris et al.'s (2019) findings diverged from those of Williams and Bargh (2008).