The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives
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Autism experts question HHS statements on Tylenol, leucovorin
Alzheimer’s paper retracted over apparent image duplication
‘What Is Intelligence?’: An excerpt
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Robots marry natural neuroscience, experimental control to probe animal interactions
This paper changed my life: Dan Goodman on a paper that reignited the field of spiking neural networks
Today’s action potentials
”Unlike traditional ‘driving causation,’ in which one action potential directly triggers another in a domino-like sequence, criterial causation emphasizes the broader conditions under which neural activity becomes effective in producing behavior. — LUIZ PESSOA, PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK
Upcoming Webinars
Memory Decoding Journal Club: Distinct synaptic plasticity …
The basal ganglia and addiction
Cellular Crosstalk in Brain Development, Evolution and Dise…
Astrocytes: From Metabolism to Cognition
Memory Decoding Journal Club: “Connectomic traces of …
Beyond Newtonian causation in neuroscience: Embracing complex causality
This paper changed my life: Dan Goodman on a paper that reignited the field of spiking neural networks
International scientific collaboration is more necessary—yet more challenging—than ever
Building the future of neuroscience at HBCUs
Autism experts question HHS statements on Tylenol, leucovorin
Long-standing theoretical neuroscience fellowship program loses financial support
Exclusive: Harvard University lays off fly database team
Quantifying funding sources across neuroscience labs
Fear and loathing on study section: Reviewing grant proposals while the system is burning
Should neuroscientists ‘vibe code’?
What U.S. science stands to lose without international graduate students and postdoctoral researchers
How to build a truly global computational neuroscience community
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.
The last two-author neuroscience paper?
Author lists on papers have ballooned, and it’s getting hard to discern contribution.
From bench to bot: Why AI-powered writing may not deliver on its promise
Keeping it personal: How to preserve your voice when using AI
Up and out with Peggy Mason
Mason helped define the rodent prosocial behavior field, but now she’s changing course.
Neuroscientist Gerry Fischbach, in his own words
Michael Breakspear and Mac Shine explain how brain processing changes across neural population scales
Everything everywhere all at once: Decision-making signals engage entire brain
The Transmitter’s reading list: Six upcoming neuroscience books, plus notable titles in 2025
The challenge of defining a neural population
‘Bird Brains and Behavior,’ an excerpt
‘Elusive Cures: Why Neuroscience Hasn’t Solved Brain Disorders—and How We Can Change That,’ an excerpt
‘Natural Neuroscience: Toward a Systems Neuroscience of Natural Behaviors,’ an excerpt
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.
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.