#Education

A major new study shows dopamine helps both quick thinking and slow habit learning.
The finding may change how clinicians and educators approach attention and learning.

The research tested two core brain systems for learning.
Those systems are working memory and reinforcement learning.

Working memory holds small amounts of information for short times.
Reinforcement learning builds habits through repeated feedback over time.

Dopamine is a key brain chemical for reward and movement.
Researchers measured how dopamine affects each learning system.

A popular parenting column described an 11-year-old girl who wants a side-shave haircut. (Slate reported the column and the family conflict.) (Slate column)

The column asked whether parents should let the child decide. (The advice columnist urged support with safeguards.) (Slate column)

The case matters for parents in Thailand. (Thai families also face school teasing and social pressure.) (UNESCO data shows peer violence in many countries.) (UNESCO report)

The central dilemma is simple to name. (Parents weigh a child’s autonomy against the risk of bullying.) (Experts call this a common parenting conflict.)

A new wave of reporting highlights a long-running research finding.
Researchers report that people grow more emotionally mature as they age.

The finding matters for family life.
Thailand has a fast-aging population and shifting family roles.

Emotional maturity matters for health.
Longitudinal research ties everyday positive emotion to longer survival.

The Vogue article framed the public debate.
It explained emotional maturity in simple terms and cited experts (Vogue).

Researchers measured emotions over decades.
They sampled feelings five times a day across ten years in one landmark study.

Thailand’s universities face an unprecedented transformation as artificial intelligence becomes as common as textbooks in lecture halls. What began as a technological curiosity has evolved into the defining characteristic of a generation that will reshape Thailand’s workforce and economy.

The Generation That Never Knew Life Without AI

Recent international research reveals a stunning reality: 71 percent of university students worldwide now use ChatGPT regularly, according to a comprehensive study spanning 109 countries and involving over 23,000 participants. This isn’t just a trend—it’s a fundamental shift that arrived faster than university administrators could adapt.

A remarkable convergence of scientific research and popular culture has illuminated one of humanity’s most hopeful findings: emotional maturity genuinely increases throughout most of adult life, bringing with it measurable benefits for longevity, relationship quality, and overall well-being. This discovery carries particular significance for Thailand’s rapidly aging population, where understanding the natural trajectory of emotional development could transform approaches to mental health, family relationships, and successful aging.

Recent landmark research tracking individuals across decades reveals that positive emotions become more frequent and stable as people age, reaching peak experiences during the mid-sixties before leveling off in very advanced age. This pattern represents far more than simple contentment with life circumstances—it reflects fundamental changes in how individuals process emotions, prioritize relationships, and navigate daily challenges.

The modern parenting dilemma crystallized in vivid detail when an advice columnist received a letter about an 11-year-old girl demanding a radical side-shave haircut. The mother worried about potential bullying while the father insisted their daughter should learn from her own choices, creating a family standoff that mirrors countless Thai households grappling with similar questions about children’s self-expression and social consequences.

The Universal Struggle Thai Families Know Well

For Thai parents, this scenario resonates deeply across cultural lines. School environments throughout Thailand present unique challenges where peer pressure intersects with traditional expectations about appearance and conformity. Recent national surveys reveal that nearly half of Thai students experience some form of bullying, with appearance-based teasing representing a significant portion of these incidents.

Researchers warn that organised scientific fraud now acts like an industry. (How bad science is becoming big business)

This trend threatens trust in evidence used in health and education. (How bad science is becoming big business)

The problem goes beyond lone bad actors. (How bad science is becoming big business)

Paper mills now sell fake papers and authorships as commercial products. (How bad science is becoming big business)

Brokerage services guarantee publication for a fee in some cases. (How bad science is becoming big business)

A compelling new academic essay bridges decades of rigorous scientific research with deeply personal experience, revealing how simple outdoor exposure can dramatically improve mental health outcomes. The work, authored by a University of Chicago psychology professor, combines memoir-style storytelling with empirical evidence to demonstrate nature’s profound therapeutic potential for addressing Thailand’s growing mental health crisis.

The Global Mental Health Emergency Reaches Thailand

International surveys reveal alarming increases in depression and anxiety disorders worldwide, with recent data showing 29 percent of American adults reporting clinical depression diagnoses. Thailand faces parallel challenges, with World Health Organization estimates indicating approximately 1.5 million Thai citizens currently experiencing depressive disorders.

A new popular essay links decades of research to personal experience about nature and mental health. (How We Can Improve Our Lives by Going Outside)

The essay describes a psychologist’s life moment and research findings. (How We Can Improve Our Lives by Going Outside)

The story matters because mental illness is rising worldwide. A Gallup survey found 29 percent of US adults report a depression diagnosis. (U.S. Depression Rates Reach New Highs - Gallup News)

A sophisticated network of academic fraud now operates like a commercial enterprise, putting Thailand’s research credibility and public health at unprecedented risk

Scientific misconduct has evolved beyond isolated incidents of researcher dishonesty into a thriving global industry that threatens to undermine decades of progress in evidence-based medicine and education policy. Leading research integrity experts warn that Thailand’s academic institutions now face an existential challenge that could compromise everything from hospital treatment protocols to national education strategies.

A major new study finds that the brain chemical dopamine helps the mind use two different learning systems at once: the fast, effortful working memory that solves new problems quickly, and the slow reinforcement-learning system that builds habits over time. The international team combined PET brain scans, a cognitive task designed to separate working memory from reinforcement learning, and drug challenges with methylphenidate and sulpiride in 100 healthy adults to show that natural dopamine production and drugs that change dopamine signaling differently shift how people learn and value effort (Nature Communications study). The findings help explain why some people prefer mentally demanding strategies and why stimulants can selectively speed habit-like trial-and-error learning (PsyPost coverage).

Mounting scientific evidence reveals that the most accessible route to enhanced cognitive performance may be one already available to everyone: quality sleep. Leading neuroscientists demonstrate that sleep transcends simple energy restoration—it actively consolidates memories, eliminates metabolic brain waste, and strengthens neural pathways underlying problem-solving and creativity. This means improving sleep habits could boost academic performance and workplace productivity in ways that brief “brain training” applications cannot match, according to specialized neuroscience research interviews and comprehensive sleep studies.

A growing body of research and firsthand reports suggests an unsettling pattern: students who leave high school with solid grades are arriving at university underprepared for the academic demands of college. A Slate parenting column that opened with a family’s struggle — where a daughter with strong high‑school marks lost her scholarship after a difficult first semester and a sibling now faces uncertainty — reflects a wider trend educators and researchers are sounding the alarm about (Slate advice column). ( There’s an Alarming Trend Happening at Our Kids’ High School. I Need to Stop It. )

Groundbreaking international research reveals that dopamine, the brain’s key neurotransmitter, orchestrates learning through two sophisticated pathways: rapidly enhancing effortful working-memory strategies while simultaneously boosting slower, trial-and-error reinforcement learning when pharmacologically increased. This comprehensive study, combining advanced brain imaging with medications commonly prescribed for ADHD treatment and sophisticated computational models, demonstrates that individual dopamine production levels predict learning strategy preferences, while methylphenidate (Ritalin) amplifies incremental learning processes and antipsychotic medications reduce working-memory dependence, according to Nature Communications research findings and specialized psychological research publications.

A growing body of research suggests that the simplest route to sharper thinking and better learning may be the one most people already have access to: sleep. Neuroscientists say sleep does more than restore energy — it actively consolidates memories, clears metabolic waste from the brain and strengthens the neural pathways that underpin problem-solving and creativity. That means improving sleep habits could boost academic performance and work productivity in ways that short bursts of “brain training” apps cannot match (Tom’s Guide interview with a neuroscientist).

A new animal study suggests the hormone oxytocin does more than make us feel warm and trusting: it helps friendships form quickly and helps animals favor familiar companions while avoiding strangers. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, found that prairie voles genetically engineered to lack oxytocin receptors took far longer to prefer peers and were less selective in group settings, pointing to a dual role for oxytocin in promoting in-group affiliation and out-group avoidance (Neuroscience News summary of the study). The findings offer a clearer picture of the neurobiology behind friendship and raise cautious questions about how this knowledge might inform understanding of human social disorders and community wellbeing in Thailand and beyond (UC Berkeley news release).

A new study finds the human imagination can reliably simulate the path of a single invisible moving object but struggles to keep track of two at the same time, a result that surprises researchers and has practical implications for teaching, safety and design in Thailand. The experiments, described in Nature Communications, used short animations of bouncing balls that vanished from view and asked participants to predict where and when those objects would hit; people performed well with one disappeared ball but fell to near chance with two, supporting a serial “one-at-a-time” model of mental simulation rather than a parallel one (Nature Communications PDF). The finding suggests that while our eyes and attention can monitor a handful of visible moving objects, the mind’s eye has a much narrower working capacity when it must continue motion after objects drop out of view (Harvard Gazette report).

A major international study shows the brain chemical dopamine plays a dual, sophisticated role in learning: it encourages fast, effortful working-memory strategies in some people while also boosting slower, trial-and-error reinforcement learning when dopamine is pharmacologically increased. The experiment combined brain imaging, drugs commonly used in ADHD treatment, and computational models to show that a person’s natural dopamine production predicts whether they lean on mental “scratchpad” strategies, while methylphenidate (Ritalin) amplifies incremental learning and an antipsychotic (sulpiride) reduces working-memory reliance (Nature Communications study) and was summarized in coverage of the findings (PsyPost summary).

Within Thailand’s dynamic cities and serene villages, invisible chemical messengers orchestrate one of humanity’s most treasured experiences: friendship. Revolutionary research from the University of California, Berkeley, demonstrates that oxytocin—widely recognized as the “bonding hormone”—serves as nature’s social architect, dramatically accelerating relationship formation while simultaneously refining our preferences for familiar faces over strangers.

This breakthrough carries transformative implications for Thai society, where communal harmony and selective social bonds anchor cultural identity. Berkeley scientists examined prairie voles, extraordinary creatures mirroring human social behaviors through lifelong partnerships and friendships. When researchers genetically modified these animals to eliminate oxytocin receptors, a remarkable transformation unfolded: the voles became socially indifferent, requiring significantly more time to develop companion preferences and displaying diminished selectivity within group settings.

America’s decision to revive its Presidential Fitness Test signals a dramatic shift back to standardized school fitness assessments, reigniting heated debates about childhood health measurement that Thailand cannot ignore. After disappearing for over a decade, this high-stakes policy returns through an executive order that reconstitutes the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition while tasking Health and Human Services with nationwide rollout.

The move represents far more than nostalgic policy-making. It emerges from the controversial “Make America Healthy Again” initiative, which frames childhood chronic disease and inactivity as urgent threats to national productivity and military readiness. This sweeping approach to youth health measurement raises critical questions about whether standardized fitness testing genuinely improves population health or simply creates new forms of educational stigma for vulnerable children already struggling with obesity and related conditions.

Revolutionary research reveals that people with ADHD don’t just use background music more frequently than their neurotypical peers—they make fundamentally different musical choices that appear to optimize their brain function for focus and productivity. A comprehensive study of 434 young adults demonstrates that individuals screening positive for ADHD consistently prefer stimulating, upbeat music during both cognitive tasks and physical activities, while neurotypical individuals gravitate toward relaxing, familiar instrumental tracks. Despite these contrasting preferences, both groups report similar improvements in concentration and mood when listening to their preferred musical styles.

Thailand’s educational authorities face mounting evidence that structured mindfulness and meditation practices could dramatically improve children’s academic focus, emotional regulation, and social development — but leading international research simultaneously warns against hasty implementation without proper safeguards and systematic evaluation. While emerging studies document significant benefits from brief, classroom-friendly meditation exercises, the effectiveness varies dramatically based on student age, program design quality, and delivery methodology, requiring careful adaptation rather than wholesale adoption.

Revolutionary research from MIT reveals that conversational artificial intelligence can do far more than provide incorrect information—it can actively implant false memories into human minds, increase confidence in those fabricated recollections, and maintain these distortions for weeks after brief interactions. A controlled study of 200 participants found that people who interacted with generative chatbots were misled about critical details at rates reaching 36 percent—roughly three times higher than participants receiving no intervention—while reporting increased confidence in their false memories compared to those using pre-scripted systems or simple surveys.

A new international study suggests a clear psychological pathway from childhood maltreatment to compulsive sexual behaviour in adulthood: early abuse and neglect predict higher scores on a Sexual Narcissism scale, and that sexual narcissism in turn strongly predicts hypersexual or compulsive sexual behaviour, together explaining roughly 60% of the variation in compulsive-sex measures in the sample (sample n = 118) (Neuroscience News summary; original article in Archives of Sexual Behavior) (Springer link). This finding frames compulsive sexual behaviour disorder (CSBD) not simply as uncontrolled impulses but as a trauma-shaped interaction between early experience and specific sexual attitudes that clinicians can target.