163295 20251024172259.0 doi 10.3389/frobt.2025.1665800 sideral 145714 ART-2025-145714 eng Cervantes, José-Antonio Editorial: Artificial intelligence and social robotics for mental healthcare 2025 In recent decades, mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression have risen dramatically across the globe (Baker and Kirk-Wade, 2023; Ten Have et al., 2023). Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Social Robotics present groundbreaking prospects that could revolutionize mental healthcare (Hung et al.). Social robots, specifically designed for human interaction by displaying emotions and engaging in conversations, along with data-driven AI, exemplify modern advancements in sectors such as education (LeTendre and Gray, 2024) and elderly care (Yen et al., 2024). Despite these advancements, the convergence of AI and social robotics in mental health has untapped potential and presents a plethora of unresolved challenges. For instance, there is a lack of ethical norms (Torras, 2024) that regulate and guide the correct use of social robots in a wide variety of contexts, ranging from assistive care for the elderly to healthcare. Therefore, in this Research Topic, we have collected current contributions to the design and development of social robots as well as empirical studies on human-robot interactions focused on mental health and elderly care. Access copy available to the general public Unrestricted info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess by https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.es info:eu-repo/semantics/other info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion Rodriguez, Luis-Felipe Gutierrez-Garcia, J. Octavio Cervantes-Alvarez, Francisco Vargas Martin, Miguel Baldassarri, Sandra Universidad de Zaragoza (orcid)0000-0002-9315-6391 5007 570 Universidad de Zaragoza Dpto. Informát.Ingenie.Sistms. Área Lenguajes y Sistemas Inf. 12 (2025), 1665800 [3 p.] Frontiers in Robotics and AI 2296-9144 288866 http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/163295/files/texto_completo.pdf Versión publicada 2042440 http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/163295/files/texto_completo.jpg?subformat=icon icon Versión publicada oai:zaguan.unizar.es:163295 articulos driver 2025-10-24-16:56:39 ARTICLE