The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives
Featured
Amina Abubakar translates autism research and care for Kenya
By
Ruth Kadide Keah
29 May 2025 | 7 min read
Multisite connectome teams lose federal funding as result of Harvard cuts
By
Angie Voyles Askham
28 May 2025 | 5 min read
Learning in living mice defies classic synaptic plasticity rule
By
Sydney Wyatt
28 May 2025 | 5 min read
Today’s action potentials
”The classic rules of plasticity that we have been sort of thinking about for decades may not be actually how the brain works, and that’s a big deal. — JASON SHEPHERD, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF NEUROBIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH
“Object knowledge representation in the human visual cortex requires a connection with the language system”
By
Bo Liu et al. in PLOS Biology
Funding
Neuroscience needs to empower early-career researchers, not fund moon shots
By
Dan Goodman
26 May 2025 | 7 min read
The BabyLM Challenge: In search of more efficient learning algorithms, researchers look to infants
By
Alona Fyshe
19 May 2025 | 9 min listen
‘We still exist’: How four neuroscience advocacy groups are navigating federal DEI funding cuts
By
Paige Miranda
14 May 2025 | 18 min listen
Spectrum logo
Fact sheet: Autism prevalence
Explore our coverage of what the science says about diagnostic changes over time, the role of genes and the environment, and more.
READ MORE
Upcoming Online Seminars
Jun
02
2025
Luca Mazzucato | University of Oregon, USA
Neural mechanisms of optimal performance
05:00 A.M. EDT
Jun
05
2025
Chris Awai | Lake Lucerne Institute, Switzerland
HealthCore: A modular data collection ecosystem to connect the dots in Neurorehab
10:15 A.M. EDT
Jun
05
2025
Simone Di Giovanni | Department of Brain Sciences - Imperial College London, UK
Immune and metabolic regulation of sensorimotor physiology and repair
06:15 A.M. EDT
NIDA shutters diversity fellowship program, axes active awards
By
Calli McMurray
14 May 2025 | 5 min listen
Spectrum
Federal funding cuts imperil next generation of autism researchers
By
Brian Boyd
30 April 2025 | 5 min read
Spectrum
Expediting clinical trials for profound autism: Q&A with Matthew State
By
Lauren Schenkman
24 April 2025 | 8 min read
How to communicate the value of curiosity-driven research
By
Anthony Zador
4 March 2025 | 5 min read
Neuroscience Ph.D. programs adjust admissions in response to U.S. funding uncertainty
By
Claudia López Lloreda, Calli McMurray
3 March 2025 | 7 min read
Nominate rising stars in neuroscience for our 2025 report.
Recognize early-career researchers who have made outstanding contributions to the field. Selected nominees will be featured on our website and in our annual book.
Learn more
Vision
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 | 13 min read
Academia
The last two-author neuroscience paper?
Author lists on papers have ballooned, and it’s getting hard to discern contribution.
By
Lydia Denworth
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25 February 2025 | 3 min read
Why the 21st-century neuroscientist needs to be neuroethically engaged
By
Karen Rommelfanger
12 May 2025 | 6 min read
Thinking about thinking: AI offers theoretical insights into human memory
By
Terrence Sejnowski
5 May 2025 | 8 min listen
From bench to bot
Keeping it personal: How to preserve your voice when using AI
By
Tim Requarth
3 March 2025 | 12 min read
From bench to bot
From bench to bot: How important is prompt engineering?
By
Tim Requarth
28 October 2024 | 8 min read
From bench to bot
From bench to bot: Does AI really make you a more efficient writer?
By
Tim Requarth
3 September 2024 | 11 min read
Neural networks
Releasing the Hydra with Rafael Yuste
Losing HHMI Investigator status prompted Yuste to study neural networks in a new way.
By
Brady Huggett, Shaena Montanari
4 April 2025 | 10 min read
Science and society
Amid confusion around U.S. science, some neuroscientists prepare to rally
By
Sydney Wyatt
4 March 2025 | 2 min read
Funding
‘A gut punch:’ How U.S. neuroscience trainees are grappling with diversity-based funding flux
By
Calli McMurray, Angie Voyles Askham, Claudia López Lloreda
14 February 2025 | 2 min read
The big picture
To keep or not to keep: Neurophysiology’s data dilemma
By
Nima Dehghani
25 November 2024 | 5 min read
The S-index Challenge: Develop a metric to quantify data-sharing success
By
Loren Frank
8 October 2024 | 6 min listen
Open neuroscience and data-sharing
A README for open neuroscience
By
Samuel Gershman
9 September 2024 | 5 min read
‘Natural Neuroscience: Toward a Systems Neuroscience of Natural Behaviors,’ an excerpt
By
Nachum Ulanovsky
15 April 2025 | 9 min read
‘Bioethics and Brains: A Disciplined and Principled Neuroethics,’ an excerpt
By
James Giordano, John Shook
14 February 2025 | 6 min read
‘Doctored: Fraud, Arrogance, and Tragedy in the Quest to Cure Alzheimer’s,’ an excerpt
By
Charles Piller
4 February 2025 | 9 min read
NeuroAI
Accepting “the bitter lesson” and embracing the brain’s complexity
To gain insight into complex neural data, we must move toward a data-driven regime, training large models on vast amounts of information. We asked nine experts on computational neuroscience and neural data analysis to weigh in.
By
Eva Dyer, Blake Richards
26 March 2025 | 8 min read
The big picture
What makes memories last—dynamic ensembles or static synapses?
Teasing out how different subfields conceptualize central terms might help move this long-standing debate forward. I asked eight scientists to weigh in.
By
Jason Shepherd
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14 October 2024 | 7 min read