The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives

Today’s action potentials

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Rapid Response Neuroscience & Society Bridge Funding Program from the Dana Foundation
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QUOTE

It’s really hard to study [astrocytes] because they’re not electrically active. They sort of keep their secrets, so we don’t really know what to measure. — BENJAMIN DENEEN, PROFESSOR OF NEUROSURGERY, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE

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NEW RESOURCE
“Astrocytes functionally integrate multiple synapses via specialized leaflet domains”
By Lucas Benoit et al. in Cell
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Illustration of a neuron.

New questions around motor neurons and plasticity

A researcher’s theory hangs muscle degeneration on a broken neural circuit.

By David Adam
10 October 2025 | 11 min listen
Judit Pungor and Angelique Allen stand in front of a saltwater tank.
Vision Microphone

Cephalopods, vision’s next frontier

For decades, scientists have been teased by the strange but inaccessible cephalopod visual system. Now, thanks to a technological breakthrough from a lab in Oregon, data are finally coming straight from the octopus brain.

By Calli McMurray
27 May 2025 | 14 min listen
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Richard Frye.
Spectrum

Exclusive: Who is Richard Frye, the neurologist who researches and advocates for leucovorin as an autism treatment?

By Brendan Borrell
1 October 2025 | 11 min read
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Illustration of a hand drawing lines between different points on the outline of a brain.

Beyond Newtonian causation in neuroscience: Embracing complex causality

The traditional mechanistic framework must give way to a richer understanding of how brains actually generate behavior over time.

By Luiz Pessoa
22 September 2025 | 25 min listen
Hands arrange various shapes over a color background.

Emotion research has a communication conundrum

In 2025, the words we use to describe emotions matter, but their definitions are controversial. Here, I unpack the different positions in this space and the rationales behind them—and I invite 13 experts to chime in.

By Nicole Rust
5 September 2025 | 37 min listen
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