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Estherina Trachtenberg is a Blavatnik Postdoctoral Fellow in the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, ¹ú¼ÊÃ×À¼¶ÔÕó¿ÆĪ and is currently working in the lab of Prof. Duncan Astle. She studies social connectedness and its impact on health, cognition, and the underlying brain networks.

A new study published today suggests that how empathic we are is not just a result of our upbringing and experience but also partly a result of our genes.

Our DNA influences our ability to read a person’s thoughts and emotions from looking at their eyes, suggests a new study published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

Asian elephants are able to recognise their bodies as obstacles to success in problem-solving, further strengthening evidence of their intelligence and self-awareness, according to a new study from the ¹ú¼ÊÃ×À¼¶ÔÕó¿ÆĪ.

If you see an injured person by the side of the road, would you stop and help them, or are you more likely to walk on by? What motivates people to do good in such a situation? 

David Greenberg (Department of Psychology) discusses how musical preferences are linked to thinking styles.

Do you like your jazz to be Norah Jones or Ornette Coleman, your classical music to be Bach or Stravinsky, or your rock to be Coldplay or Slayer? The answer could give an insight into the way you think, say researchers from the ¹ú¼ÊÃ×À¼¶ÔÕó¿ÆĪ.

Scientists have confirmed that variations in a particular gene play a key role in the autism spectrum condition known as Asperger Syndrome. They have also found that variations in the same gene are also linked to differences in empathy levels in the general population. 

A year-long study on childrens' music-making indicates that playing music in groups on a regular basis greatly improves a child’s ability to empathise with others.

A new study from Utrecht and ¹ú¼ÊÃ×À¼¶ÔÕó¿ÆĪ Universities has for the first time found that an administration of testosterone under the tongue in volunteers negatively affects a person’s ability to ‘mind read’, an indication of empathy. The findings are published this week in the journal Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences.