Researchers from Japan have unveiled a comprehensive dataset detailing the psychological and social responses of Japanese adults to the COVID-19 pandemic. Spanning 30 survey waves from January 2020 to March 2024, the open dataset captures how Japanese adults’ risk perception, preventive behaviors, policy attitudes, views toward foreigners, and psychological distress evolved over more than four years of uncertainty. Published as a data paper in Data in Brief, this resource is now openly accessible to the global community.

USC researchers have uncovered new insights into how brain wiring differs in children and young adults with autism, pointing to more precise ways of understanding the condition. The study, published in Cerebral Cortex, analyzed brain scans from 365 participants between the ages of 5 and 24. Using advanced imaging and informatics methods, the team mapped tiny structural differences in the brain’s white matter, the “communication highways” that connect different regions of the brain. Traditional imaging studies have suggested differences in white matter in autism, but results have been inconsistent. To address this, the team applied new computational tools that allow for fine-scale mapping along individual fiber bundles. They found that, on average, autistic participants showed localized changes across many major tracts that link the brain’s hemispheres and connect regions involved in language, social behavior, and sensory processing.

A new study suggests that delaying the expansion of renewable energy might unintentionally reduce the world’s long term motivation to address climate change. The research finds that while the social cost of carbon usually rises as climate damages grow, it may suddenly fall once global warming passes a critical threshold. This drop in the social cost of carbon would weaken the economic incentive to reduce emissions and could speed up global warming.