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The National Institute of Mental Health has awarded a five-year, $9 million grant to a research group Caltech to study the neurobiology of social decision making.

The grant establishes a Silvio O. Conte Center for Neuroscience Research, where researchers will use electrophysiology and functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate how humans make social decisions. 

By mapping the brain lesions of patients, neuroscientists at Caltech were able to show that reasoning and behavioral control are dependent on different regions of the lobes than the areas called upon when making a decision.

Tom Harris came to Caltech with an undeclared major, thinking he would study computer science. But, having been an avid Lego builder as a kid, he was drawn to mechanical engineering. He also has an interest in medieval history, which similarly dates back to his childhood—he loved pirates and knights, and both his parents were history majors—and after he took Brown's medieval history class, his impression of the study of history changed.

Caltech's core curriculum is designed to prepare students for the interdisciplinary nature of contemporary research in science and technology and requires that they complete what amounts to a class each quarter in the Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS). The Los Angeles Times recently focused the spotlight on this aspect of the Caltech experience, featuring several of the division's students. 

Growing up, Katie Brennan didn't have a lot of opportunities to travel. So when she started her biology studies at Caltech, one of her main goals was to explore the world. Thanks to a plenitude of funding from the Institute, Brennan—a graduating senior—can now cross two more continents and the mountains of Washington State off her list. 

Interested in how the brain makes connections between touch and emotion, neuroscientists at Caltech have discovered that the association begins in the brain's primary somatosensory cortex.

Medicare's new method for buying medical supplies and equipment—everything from wheelchairs and hospital beds to insulin shots and oxygen tanks—is doomed to face severe difficulties, according to a new study by Caltech researchers.

In sports, on a game show, or just on the job, what causes people to choke when the stakes are high? A new study by researchers at Caltech suggests that when there are high financial incentives to succeed, people can become so afraid of losing their potentially lucrative reward that their performance suffers.