Psychology

The Human Advantage: The Neuroscience of Leadership in the Age of AI examines how brain health and cognitive skills influence leadership, judgment, performance and resilience. With routine cognitive tasks increasingly automated, the summit considers the neural and behavioral foundations of attention, trust, adaptability, creativity, empathy and moral agency. Keynotes and interdisciplinary panels connect neuroscience research with its practical implications for individuals and organizations. Named participants include Kalina Christoff Hadjiilieva, Oriel FeldmanHall and Earl K. Miller. The summit takes place on 6 November 2026 at Jon M. Huntsman Hall, 8th floor, 3730 Walnut Street, Philadelphia. Times are Eastern Standard Time (America/New_York, UTC−5). The agenda begins with registration and breakfast at 08:30, opening remarks at 09:00, and keynote and panel sessions from 09:10. Closing remarks are at 16:05, followed by a reception at 16:15. The registration system lists an overall event window of 08:00–18:00; the agenda may change. Attendance is free and open to all, including students, researchers, educators, healthcare practitioners and business professionals. Capacity is limited and advance registration is required through the event-specific Wharton form.

This UniDistance Suisse event explores how research on socio-emotional skills can inform play, learning and discussion about emotions. It introduces the Emotion board game through a keynote, an interdisciplinary panel and practical activities, in collaboration with the Réseau Émotions et Éducation. Programme on 11 November 2026, Europe/Zurich (CET, UTC+01:00): 13:45 welcome; 13:50–14:05 keynote on experiencing emotions through play with Andrea Samson (UniDistance Suisse) and Nicolas Bressoud (HEP-VS); 14:05 film; 14:15–15:00 panel with Michele Ursprung (Canal9), David Sander (CISA and University of Geneva), Alexandra Zaharia (UniDistance Suisse), Laura Moreno (University of Fribourg), and Hadi Barkat (Helvetiq). From 15:00–16:40, participants can move between networking and emotion activities, board-game demonstrations, and a workshop on educational play led by Ulrich Schädler, former director of the Swiss Museum of Games. Closing: 16:40–17:00. In-person venue: UniDistance Suisse, Schinerstrasse 18, 3900 Brig, Switzerland. Register through the event page's public registration form.

This interdisciplinary conference investigates stigma as a barrier to healthcare, combining research evidence, lived experience and practical interventions. Its programme examines structural and systemic discrimination, intersectional stigma and access to care across HIV and viral hepatitis, alcohol and other drugs, disability, gender and sexuality, migration and reproductive health. Sessions use qualitative and quantitative studies, community consultation and co-design to explore care models and strategies for changing policy and practice. The programme includes Aboriginal community-controlled approaches and Yarning, person-centred care, stigma-reduction education and interventions informed by lived experience. Featured participants include Rhea Liang (Bond University), Liesl Tesch (NSW Parliament) and Josephine Nabukenya (Miles of Smiles Foundation). Research participants include Loren Brener and Timothy Broady (Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW), Lise Lafferty (Centre for Social Research in Health and Kirby Institute, UNSW), and Carla Treloar (UNSW Sydney). The conference is in person at Colombo Building B16, UNSW Sydney, Kensington, NSW, Australia; entry is via High Street Gate 4 and Fig Tree Lane. On 23 November registration opens at 8:00 am and the scientific programme starts at 9:00 am; on 24 November sessions start at 9:00 am and the conference closes at 5:00 pm. Times are Australia/Sydney, AEDT (UTC+11). Register publicly through Eventbrite. General two-day admission is AUD 480 through 1 October and AUD 550 from 2 October; one-day admission is AUD 350, with student/concession rates of AUD 420 for two days or AUD 250 for one day. The organiser confirms there is no hybrid attendance. Abstract submissions and conference scholarships are closed.

Listening in the real world involves making sense of mixtures of multiple overlapping sounds. The brain decomposes such scenes into individual objects, and a sequence of related auditory objects forms a stream. We are investigating the role of the auditory cortex in the formation and maintenance of auditory streams. The temporal coherence theory has provided one explanation for stream formation, postulating that the brain creates a multidimensional representation of sounds along different feature axes, and groups them based on their temporal coherence, to form streams. However, this theory has yet to be tested at the neural population level with naturalistic sounds. To investigate this question, we trained ferrets to detect a target word in a stream of random distractor words, spoken by the same talker, played in the presence of a spatially separated noise stream (speech-shaped noise). Neural data were collected in the auditory cortex of behaving ferrets. We found that the neural encoding of words is unaffected by the location of the stream in a single-stream task (p > 0.05). However, in the presence of a spatially separated competing stream, encoding of the words in the contralateral stream was significantly better than in the ipsilateral stream (p = 0.034). Interestingly, early in the trial, the ipsilateral stream decoding is at chance level, whereas towards the end of the trial it approaches that of the contralateral stream. These findings suggest that, in the presence of a competing noise stream, auditory cortical neural populations may quickly adapt to switch from representing the contralateral stream to representing the attended stream.

Psychologist Martin Seligman joins Hidden Brain to discuss learned helplessness and why some people act on opportunities while others believe their actions cannot change outcomes. The conversation examines how interpretations of setbacks influence later behaviour and how optimism can help people recover a sense of agency. Seligman is a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Hosted by Shankar Vedantam and published by Hidden Brain Media on 21 September 2026, this is the first part of How to Make a Difference. The official episode page provides a public audio player.

Fund empirical neuroscience and behavioural research into how people form, maintain and change the mental models that shape perception. The call covers agency, interoception and emotion regulation, identity and self-narrative, and meaning or belonging. Projects should test mechanisms rather than only symptom relief. Up to USD 900,000 supports three years, including no more than 15% overhead. Submit an anonymised letter of intent by 5 October 2026 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time. Full proposals in February 2027 require invitation.

Join Stanford HAI and the AI for Public Benefit Lab under Robb Willer to study and evaluate socially useful AI. Work includes source-grounded language models, retrieval systems, responsible-AI evaluation, field and survey experiments, and independent research spanning behavioural science and public benefit. The full-time Stanford-based appointment initially lasts one year, with an intended second year subject to performance, funding and approval. Annual pay is $80,000–$90,000. Start is flexible but no later than autumn 2027. Review starts on 15 October 2026 and continues until filled.

Yuko Munakata presents evidence challenging capacity-only accounts of self-control and explains how experience, effort, and expected payoff shape executive-function engagement and later outcomes.