$900K NSF Grant to Help Researchers Probe the Cognitive Brain Mechanisms Behind Free Will

Funded by a three-year $900,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, Distinguished Professor George R. Mangun, director of the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain, is launching a project to better understand the cognitive mechanisms behind realistic voluntary attention, or attention directed by an individual’s free will. The project will be conducted in collaboration with engineering colleagues at the University of Florida.

Study Outlines COVID-19 Pandemic’s Effects on Immigration and US Labor Market

A prevailing narrative about immigration is that migrants displace U.S.-born residents in the workforce, but new research from UC Davis economists shows that’s not the case. The study published in the Journal of Population Economics details how the COVID-19 pandemic led to a decrease in immigration to the U.S. and how jobs often filled by migrants were not filled by U.S.-born residents.    

Psychology Student's Study Shows Ethnic Pride Enhances Latinx Youth Well-Being

Encouraging Latinx adolescents of Mexican origin to embrace their ethnic pride, cultural values, and connections to their cultural community contributes to positive development and better adjustment during adolescence, a new University of California, Davis, psychology study suggests.

“We found evidence suggesting that increasing ethnic pride and connection to cultural values may significantly improve psychological well-being for Mexican-origin adolescents,” said Lisa Johnson, lead author and doctoral student in the Department of Psychology and the Center for Mind and Brain.

Helping Clams Deal With Climate Change Using Interdisciplinary Tools

As we reckon with the effects of climate change, so too must the other organisms that call Earth home. But what if you couldn’t move away from your dwelling to escape a threat? What if your shelter, your refuge, was a part of your body? Shellfish face this plight. Supported by an $80,000 California Sea Grant Graduate Research Fellowship, UC Davis doctoral candidate Hannah Kempf is exploring how to unify modern scientific techniques with Indigenous shellfish management practices to help protect shellfish from ocean acidification.

Activist Scholar Group Founded at UC Davis Back for 40th Anniversary

The first meeting of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (MALCS), a professional organization for self-identified Chicana, Latina, Native American, Indigenous and gender non-conforming academics, students and activists, took place at UC Davis in 1982. Forty years later, the organization, founded by Adaljiza Sosa Riddell, professor emerita of Chicana and Chicano studies, is back on campus for its 2023 summer institute.

Study Looks at Reproductive Inequality in Humans Compared to Other Species

In modern society, one parent may take a daughter to ballet class and fix dinner so the other parent can get to exercise class before picking up the son from soccer practice. To an observer, they seem to be cooperating in their very busy, co-parenting, monogamous relationship. These people may think they are part of an evolved society different from the other mammals that inhabit earth. But their day-to-day behavior and child-rearing habits are not much different than other mammals who hunt, forage for food, and rear and teach their children, researchers suggest.

International Research Team Discovers Oldest Known Sexed Personal Ornament

An international team of researchers, including UC Davis Associate Professor of Anthropology Nicolas Zwyns, has uncovered the earliest known representation of a sexed personal ornament in human history. The study, published in Scientific Reports, describes and analyzes a phallus-shaped black pendant discovered in northern Mongolia and dating back to 42,000 years ago. In addition to pushing back the timeline for sexed symbolic representation in the archaeological record, the pendant was discovered in a location where Homo sapiens mingled with other ancient human species, including the extinct Denisovans. The research adds more fuel to the debate about whether figurative depictions in art was a trait exclusive to Homo sapiens in ancient human history.