News & Comment

Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by social communication differences and repetitive behaviors. Recently, autism research has shifted to reflect the need for individualized, ecologically valid models of social cognition difficulties. This Special Issue brings together innovative studies exploring how autistic individuals perceive and respond to social interactions, using a broad range of methodological approaches including psychophysical experiments, neuroimaging and behavioral measures. Emerging themes include differential processing in individuals on the spectrum in social cognition, social perception, eye contact, emotion regulation/arousal, and interpersonal synchrony. The collection also introduces novel translational approaches, such as using motion synchrony during diagnostic interviews and characterizing individual motor-sensory profiles. Together, the articles in the Special Issue reflect a paradigm shift in autism research from the previous more static views of social difficulties and moving toward a nuanced understanding of heterogeneity, compensation and adaptive potential. This body of work underscores the value of precision approaches to improve social cognition and lays the foundation for inclusive, strengths-based interventions.

Since the discovery of electroencephalography to measure brain activity in 1924, sleep research has rapidly advanced. Contemporary sleep research no longer focuses on the length of sleep and the consequences of sleep loss. Instead, a multitude of sleep parameters, such as sleep duration, quality, irregularity, health, and disordered sleep, now inform the sleep science community about the importance of sleep in relation to health, performance, cognitive, cultural, and clinical outcomes through diverse study designs, equipment, and across a range of populations. This special issue on sleep and its disorders has shown us how diverse and widespread the study of sleep has become today. Geographically, it is remarkable that we received manuscripts from various continents and from dozens of countries. The themes and approaches were equally diverse, ranging from population-based studies to laboratory investigations, and including discussions of public policies related to sleep.

Household air pollution has long been overlooked in environmental health policy, yet the evidence now makes clear that our homes, particularly in low and middle-income countries, are often the most significant sites of exposure to airborne pollutants. This “Household Air Pollution” collection brings together six recent studies that investigate emissions from common household activities, characterize pollutant concentrations in domestic environments, and assess associated health risks. This multidisciplinary research – spanning environmental engineering, aerosol science, epidemiology, and public health – demonstrates that improving household air quality is both necessary and feasible. Together, they highlight the urgent need for integrated strategies, policies and standards that prioritize indoor environments as a key determinant of health and developing health-centered design, source control, and public awareness to improve indoor air quality where it matters most: in our homes. We are grateful to the authors for their insightful contributions, the reviewers for their expertise, and the Scientific Reports editorial team for their support. We hope this Collection serves as a valuable resource and a call to action for scientists, public health officials, architects, and policymakers alike.

Maternal mortality is a vital indicator of the performance of healthcare systems. To address the challenges it faces, a multifaceted lens is required. In this editorial, we present eight studies addressing maternal health from various perspectives, including epidemiology, social support, technology, and innovation. Specifically, we discuss the pandemic-related increase in maternal mortality in Brazil, racial disparities in severe maternal morbidity in the US, the benefits of social support for postpartum depression in Poland, and the adverse effects of maternal obesity in Nigeria. Furthermore, we also discuss studies on vascular dysfunction in hypertensive pregnancies, the impact of the pandemic on pregnancy in Louisiana, the development of a cost-effective uterine balloon tamponade kit for postpartum hemorrhage, and the application of AI to predict delivery outcomes. Collectively, we emphasize the necessity of a comprehensive, multidisciplinary strategy to reduce maternal mortality and improve care globally.

This editorial introduces a broad Collection of works highlighting the central role of faces, the richest and most complex of social stimuli, in human behaviour. The Collection covers work from various areas of psychology, psychiatry, and neuroscience on different aspects of face perception: The development of face perception, the underlying cognitive and neural mechanisms of face perception, the role of faces in social interaction, how neurological or psychiatric conditions can affect face perception, as well as face perception in human–machine interactions involving artificial agents with face-like features. This body of work underscores the profound impact of faces on social interaction, aiming to promote dialogue among different disciplines and inspire future research in this vibrant research domain.

The diverse and heterogeneous nature of cancer is a fundamental characteristic that is responsible for therapy resistance, progression, and recurrence of disease. In order to enhance therapeutic efficacy, novel combination therapies are currently being proposed and utilized in clinical practice to effectively manage or retard disease progression. Several factors contribute to therapeutic resistance, including elevated expression of survival factors, mutations in genes that limit therapeutic effectiveness, multidrug resistance, and the potential involvement of cancer stem cells. This Scientific Reports Collection covers the underlying mechanisms responsible for therapeutic resistance. Additionally, the publications from this Collection highlight numerous innovative molecules to overcome this resistance and significantly sensitize tumors across various cancer models.

Venoms are naturally available biological resources with a huge potential to explore numerous pharmacologically valuable compounds to diagnose and treat human diseases. Therefore, researching venoms is not only beneficial to develop better diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for envenomation, but also to explore the clinical potential of a plethora of molecules. This special Collection includes a range of articles that report a variety of research on the development of diagnostic methods for venom detection and toxicity of venoms in various cellular systems. We believe that this Collection extends the knowledge and offers potential avenues to initiate new lines of research in this field.

Oral health is increasingly recognized for its interconnectedness to systemic health, with emerging evidence highlighting their bidirectional relationship. Oral diseases, affecting approximately 3.5 billion people globally, disproportionately burden low- and middle-income countries due to inadequate healthcare access. Recognizing oral health as a component of overall well-being emphasizes the need for integrative approaches linking dentistry and medicine. This Collection presents clinical and experimental studies addressing oral-systemic health connections. Clinical trials evaluated temporomandibular disorders, juvenile idiopathic arthritis impacts on TMJ deformities, oral rehabilitation post-esophagectomy, and botulinum toxin interventions for masseter hypertrophy. An animal study demonstrated combined skeletal regeneration potential of dietary hesperidin and recombinant BMP2. Additionally, a genome-wide association study of salivary microbiota linked genetic variants to cardiometabolic diseases, underscoring how host genetics influence oral microbial diversity and systemic health outcomes. In conclusion, collaborative dental-medical strategies are essential for improved patient outcomes and systemic health management.

Achieving "sustainable management of water and sanitation for all" is a fundamental part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Rising rates of urbanization and industrialization necessitate continual technological advancements to address existing and emerging water pollution issues related to centralized populations and industrial wastes. The articles in the Collection “Water and Wastewater Treatment Technologies” showcase salient aspects of advances in measurement and monitoring, as well as recommendations for sustainable use and management of water resources. The Collection associated with this editorial also presents studies that highlight the importance of decentralization and digitalization of environmental water technologies.

Understanding droplet and bubble dynamics in various configurations is essential for many technical applications. This collection showcases the latest research in this field, covering both fundamental and applied perspectives. Studies have employed advanced experimental and numerical methods. Topics include droplet wetting and spreading on functional surfaces, coalescence dynamics of droplets, drag reduction in microchannels, and ultrasound backscatter of bubbles.

Cancer is among the most common causes of mortality worldwide. Screening for cancer involves surveillance of populations towards identification of cancer that was unknown to the patient. Therapeutic treatments for cancer generally are more effective when applied earlier on in the condition’s development, as such, screening for cancer has the potential to improve the standard for patient care and improving mortality and morbidity associated with the disease. Cancer screening has increasingly become dependent on advanced technologies to assist in the identification and characterization of tumours. This article Collection showcases current research towards the development of new methods for cancer screening, including the development of new advanced technologies in this domain such as novel methods incorporating liquid biopsies, tailed primer isothermal amplification assays, and infrared spectroscopy. As is common in modern research, approaches make use of computational techniques as a critical component in cancer screening, and research is highlighted on the use of artificial intelligence, which is now a common technological innovation contributing to the overall cancer screening process in research studies. Future directions for cancer screening are discussed.

Burnout, characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment, has become increasingly prevalent in modern society, particularly among healthcare professionals. The chronic stress experienced in these demanding roles significantly contributes to the development of burnout. This editorial reviews recent research findings on burnout and stress, focusing on findings from Scientific Reports' Collection on the topic. We explore the role of both systemic factors and individual vulnerabilities in contributing to burnout across various contexts, from healthcare settings to academia. Recent studies highlight the role of protective psychological factors such as optimism, humor, and resilience in mitigating burnout, while also emphasizing how hope and self-efficacy can mediate the relationship between stress and professional burnout. Moral injury and systemic inefficiencies faced by healthcare professionals were exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Analysis of cognitive-behavioral stress-management competencies reveals that proactive approaches, particularly planning and prevention, are more effective than reactive methods in managing stress. The evidence suggests that effective interventions must address both systemic issues (such as excessive workloads and resource constraints) and individual factors (through resilience-building and stress-management training). A holistic approach combining institutional support with individual empowerment strategies is essential for mitigating burnout and stress and enhancing collective well-being in professional settings.

The oxygen inventory of the global ocean is declining. This phenomenon, known as ocean deoxygenation, has emerged as a fundamental pathway for climate change to alter marine ecosystems. An important concern is how this global oxygen decline will manifest in coastal and oceanic systems that are already subject to low oxygen, or hypoxic conditions. There is also a clear need to understand how the intensification and/or expansion of hypoxia will affect ocean food webs and biogeochemical cycles. Building a predictive understanding of ocean hypoxia is a multi-scaled and multi-disciplinary research endeavor. Recent advances in ocean observation, experimental biology, and ecosystem modeling are being applied to ocean hypoxia research to reshape our understanding of the future ocean.

The gut–brain axis, a bidirectional communication pathway, permits the central nervous system (CNS) to exert influence over gastrointestinal function in response to stress, while the gut microbiota regulates the CNS via immune, neuroendocrine, and vagal pathways. Current research highlights the importance of the gut microbiota in stress-related disorders and the need for further research into the mechanisms of gut–brain communication, with potential therapeutic implications for a wide range of health conditions. This is a challenge taken on in this Scientific Reports Collection on the Gut-Brain Axis. The gut–brain axis has significant implications for neurodegenerative, psychiatric, and metabolic disorders. Recent studies have underscored the role of the gut microbiome in conditions such as Parkinson’s disease (PD), with evidence indicating that gut dysfunction and pathological features can precede motor symptoms by decades. The use of in vivo animal models has demonstrated that preformed α-synuclein fibrils (PFFs) can travel from the gut to the brain in a dosage-dependent manner, thereby supporting the “gut-first” theory in the context of PD, a theory that is explored in this Collection using in vitro approaches. There is also evidence that the gut–brain axis plays a role in obesity and machine learning algorithms may assist in differentiating between obese and overweight individuals based on their microbiota data. There is also growing interest in the role of the gut at the interface between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), sleep disturbances, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The studies described in this Collection support and expand on the observations from previous preclinical and clinical investigations, while also providing essential novel insights that can drive discovery into previously unexplored avenues of brain-gut-microbiome interactions in health and disease.

Throughout history, poets, scholars, and scientists have acknowledged the profound link between sleep and psychological well-being. The wisdom of “sleep on it”, ingrained in both Western and Eastern traditions, highlights the crucial role sleep plays in restoring and enhancing cognitive functions. In today’s fast-paced, highly-interconnected, technology-driven world, where cognitive demands are ever-growing, quality sleep has become both more vital and more elusive. This collection delves into the evolving role of sleep in maintaining psychological well-being amidst contemporary challenges. It brings together a diverse array of behavioral and brain imaging studies from researchers across the globe, focusing on three key areas: the beneficial effects of sleep on learning and education, the detrimental consequences of sleep disruption on mental health, and the rising prevalence of sleep disruption in vulnerable populations. These studies offer compelling insights, revealing, for instance, how sleep consolidates conceptual networks of knowledge, how sleep disruption can signal suicidal tendencies a month before suicide attempts, and how heatwaves negatively affect infant sleep. This body of work not only underscores the cognitive benefits of sleep but also illuminates how contemporary challenges—such as climate change, poverty, and shift work—undermine sleep health. It calls for targeted interventions to improve sleep health and psychological well-being in response to these contemporary challenges, urging scholars and policymakers to prioritize sleep health as a foundational element in building a healthier, more resilient society.

Since the introduction of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) almost four decades ago, non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques have emerged as promising tools to study brain-behaviour relationships in healthy and impaired states with unprecedented precision. Various NIBS techniques, including TMS, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), and emerging methods such as transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) and transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) are employed in both research and clinical settings. TMS has gained regulatory approval for treating conditions like major depressive disorder and migraine, while tDCS is showing efficacy in enhancing cognitive functions in various populations. This collection of articles examines key studies, including the modulation of cognitive-motor functions, optimization of light stimulation for Alzheimer’s therapy, and effects on risk-taking behaviour in violent offenders. Notably, the findings suggest that NIBS can effectively influence executive functions and decision-making processes. They highlight the integration of NIBS with neuroimaging techniques, the importance of personalized targeting, and the potential for combined therapeutic approaches. Future directions include addressing methodological challenges and leveraging artificial intelligence to refine treatment protocols. Collectively, these advancements position NIBS as a transformative tool in both neuroscience research and clinical practice, offering new avenues for understanding and treating complex neuropsychiatric conditions.

Ensuring the sustainability and security of groundwater resources requires identification of region-specific challenges and solutions to accommodate water needs in diverse sectors, including ecosystems. They are related to extensive variations in natural conditions (e.g. geology, geomorphology and hydrology), human interventions, and political, cultural and socio-economic realities that need to be considered in working towards sustainable development. To achieve this goal, it is important to understand social transformations and societal drivers, as well as management and governance challenges which hinder effective groundwater management and access. Unlocking the future opportunities of groundwater require to integrate the existing knowledge and emerging tools and techniques to explore the unknown resources, and device governance strategies to improve livelihoods and health, build more resilient water futures, and move towards long-term sustainable and equitable groundwater use.

The urbanisation process, which consists of the transformation of semi-natural and natural habitats to heavily modified habitats dominated by buildings and infrastructure such as roads, continues in response to an increasing human population and an increasing proportion of people inhabiting urban areas. The urbanisation process generally has negative impacts upon biodiversity, and as urban areas are expected to expand in the future, we need to acquire a better understanding of the ecological effects of urbanisation. In this Collection focusing on urban biodiversity, articles improve our understanding of the distribution of biodiversity between and within urban areas, whilst also seeking to understand the consequences of urbanisation for trophic cascades and genetic divergence. Other articles advance our understanding of the impacts of stressors in the form of noise and light pollution, whilst also examining how best to conserve urban biodiversity via features such as green roofs. The articles in this Collection therefore advance our understanding of the impact of urbanisation on biodiversity, yet also highlight those avenues that warrant further attention in terms of using sophisticated technological approaches to examine the most pressing topical issues in biodiversity conservation in urban areas globally.