John Bowlby claimed that attachment serves an adaptive purpose: to keep parents and caregivers close to ensure the child's survival. In the early stages of attachment, babies use social releasers, such as crying, grasping, smiling and gazing, to elicit adults' caregiving; Bowlby believed that adults are innately programmed to respond to these signals. Now research using event-related fMRI ,a technique that shows which parts of the brain are activated in response to specific events, has shown that the reward centres of mothers' brains are activated by their own child's smile, but not by the smiles of other children. The report by Baylor College of Medicine researchers appears in the journal Pediatrics today.

New research, relevant to the cognitive Psychology section of the A2 specification, shows that mental imagery can influence perception.

There is significant evidence that transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is effective in treating severely depressed patients, a new study has found.

More evidence that intelligence can be affected by nurture, but biological determinism still rules (at least for gerbils) New research findings published online in The FASEB Journal provide more evidence that if we get smart about what we eat, our intelligence can improve. According to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientists, dietary nutrients found in a wide range of foods from infant formula to eggs increase brain synapses and improve cognitive abilities.