The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives

Featured

Cortical organoids.

Organoids

Five-year-old human brain organoids aged on schedule

By Claudia López Lloreda

19 August 2026 | 5 min read

Behavior

Brainstem neurons add new element to ‘already complex’ anxiety circuitry

By Sarah Thau

19 August 2026 | 0 min watch

Brain Inspired

Marco Facchin explores the ever-shifting landscape of neuroscience theory and philosophy

By Paul Middlebrooks

19 August 2026 | 1 min read

Latest

The fun and flexibility of data science

Neural dynamics

Mind over metrics: How can we tell if two brains (or AI models) are alike?

This paper changed my life

This paper changed my life: A technical breakthrough for memory studies

Developmental neuroscience

Early experience reshapes zebrafish retinal cells, alters behavior

Loss of interneuron plasticity may be shared hallmark of neurodevelopmental conditions

Neuropsychiatric MRI brain signatures fail reproducibility test

Optimized two-photon microscopy enables voltage imaging at multiple depths

Are parts of the memory trace found in the ‘astroengram?’

Neuro’s Ark: Unorthodox model organisms

This series highlights neuroscience research in nontraditional organisms and the questions those animals are well suited to help researchers answer.

Perspectives

Two trajectories cross over each other showing areas of alignment and misalignment.

Neural dynamics

Mind over metrics: How can we tell if two brains (or AI models) are alike?

By Alex Williams

17 August 2026 | 7 min read

Mice playing, engaged in learning and memory: some of their brains are yellow, and some are red, matching a red and yellow legend that runs through the image to underscore both memory and learning.

This paper changed my life

Este artículo cambió mi vida: Un descubrimiento técnico para estudios de la memoria

By Noelia Weisstaub

14 August 2026 | 5 min read

Mice playing, engaged in learning and memory: some of their brains are yellow, and some are red, matching a red and yellow legend that runs through the image to underscore both memory and learning.

This paper changed my life

Este artigo mudou minha vida: um avanço técnico para os estudos da memória

By Noelia Weisstaub

14 August 2026 | 6 min read

Mice playing, engaged in learning and memory: some of their brains are yellow, and some are red, matching a red and yellow legend that runs through the image to underscore both memory and learning.

This paper changed my life

This paper changed my life: A technical breakthrough for memory studies

By Noelia Weisstaub

14 August 2026 | 5 min read

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I think it’s becoming more accepted that the academia-industry connection isn’t one-way; it’s a revolving door.
— TAYLOR BOLT, DATA SCIENTIST, CPMC READ MORE

Research image of expression of MEIS2 in PV interneurons.

Spectrum

Loss of interneuron plasticity may be shared hallmark of neurodevelopmental conditions

By Claudia López Lloreda

12 August 2026 | 5 min read

Links between tuberous sclerosis complex and autism, and more

Virus-like particles deliver gene-editing tools into Duchenne mouse model

See all Spectrum

Structural MRI scans of people with Alzheimer’s disease and depression.

Spectrum

Neuropsychiatric MRI brain signatures fail reproducibility test

By Holly Barker

12 August 2026 | 5 min read

See all Spectrum

Funding and policy

Illustration of scientists climbing over a barrier to reach publications.

Science and society

Scientific talent is global. Access to the world’s scientific stage is not.

By Vicente Medel

3 August 2026 | 8 min read

Illustration of scientists climbing over a barrier to reach publications.

Science and society

O talento científico é global. O acesso ao cenário científico mundial, não.

By Vicente Medel

3 August 2026 | 11 min read

Illustration of scientists climbing over a barrier to reach publications.

Science and society

El talento científico es global. El acceso al escenario científico mundial, no.

By Vicente Medel

3 August 2026 | 11 min read

Illustration of brain taking shape.

Policy

Neuroscientists weigh in on White House proposal for ‘moonshot infrastructure’ for connectomics

By Sarah Thau

24 July 2026 | 4 min read

See all funding and policy

Craft and careers

Taylor Bolt photo illustration.

Frameshift

The fun and flexibility of data science

By Katie Moisse

18 August 2026 | 7 min read

Illustration of Middle Eastern neuroscientists talking at a bar, eating baklava.

Science and society

An Iranian, an Israeli, and a Palestinian neuroscientist walked into a bar…

By Arash Fassihi, Gily Ginosar, Noga Larry, Abdulraheem Nashef

28 July 2026 | 7 min read

Illustration of man holding a microphone facing an audience.

Craft and careers

After the ‘Thank you’ slide: When lived trauma enters trauma neuroscience

By Ziv Ben-Zion

22 July 2026 | 7 min read

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Features

Astroengram pattern emerging from the center of an image of a classical neuronal pattern.

Memory

Are parts of the memory trace found in the ‘astroengram?’

Neurons have long taken top billing in memory, but researchers are making the case for astrocytes.

By David Brzostowicki

10 August 2026 | 9 min read

Headshots of Yale researchers Yong-Hui Jiang and Jiangbing Zhou.

gene editing

Supported by a $40 million NIH grant, Yale brain shuttle technology raises questions

Yale University claims its STEP platform might be able to deliver gene-editing tools into the brain via multiple routes. Researchers are eager to see more.

By Natalia Mesa

3 June 2026 | 11 min read

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This paper changed my life

Ilustração de canto de pássaro, cérebro de pássaro e DNA.

This paper changed my life

Este artigo mudou minha vida: adotando um dos primeiros modelos de neurociência naturalística

By Sidarta Ribeiro

14 July 2026 | 5 min read

Ilustración del canto de las aves, el cerebro de las aves y el ADN.

This paper changed my life

Este artículo cambió mi vida: Adoptando un modelo temprano de neurociencia naturalista

By Sidarta Ribeiro

14 July 2026 | 5 min read

Illustration of birdsong, bird brain, and DNA.

This paper changed my life

This paper changed my life: Embracing an early model for naturalistic neuroscience

By Sidarta Ribeiro

14 July 2026 | 4 min read

See all This paper changed my life

Publishing

Adriano Aguzzi.

Ethics

Neuropathologist not guilty of research misconduct, says university probe

By Dalmeet Singh Chawla

8 July 2026 | 5 min read

Red note stuck in a stack of paper.

Publishing

Scientists decry conference’s use of hidden prompts to snare AI peer reviews

By Dalmeet Singh Chawla

1 July 2026 | 4 min read

Computer code.

Publishing

Exclusive: Neuroscience journal editor resigns over automation concerns

By Dalmeet Singh Chawla

17 June 2026 | 5 min read

Illustration of pixelated eye and stacks of paper.

Artificial intelligence

Writing science that humans and machines can read

By Rachel Parkinson

15 June 2026 | 7 min read

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PROFILES

Stars shooting upward.

Early-career researchers

The Transmitter ’s Rising Stars of Neuroscience 2025

We recognize the outstanding achievements of 25 neuroscientists who stand to shape the field for years to come.

By Francisco J. Rivera Rosario, Lauren Schneider

15 November 2025 | 23 min read

Composite of headshots of researchers who opened new labs in the past several years.

Community

The Transmitter’s New Lab Directory

By Francisco J. Rivera Rosario

15 November 2025 | 21 min read

Nachum Ulanovsky sits against a black background with one bat in his hands and another with its wings spread above his head.

Neuroethology

Diving in with Nachum Ulanovsky

By Claudia López Lloreda

16 October 2025 | 14 min read

See all Profiles

Systems neuroscience

Memory

New findings begin to resolve theta sweep debate

By Natalia Mesa

6 August 2026 | 1 min watch

Dendrite.

Memory

Dendrites compute independently of cell body

By Natalia Mesa

29 July 2026 | 5 min read

Research image of mouse brain.

Sleep

Making waves: Sleep-like brain activity in awake mice lowers sleep need, boosts memory

By Alissa de Chassey

16 July 2026 | 4 min read

Two lab mice fighting.

Social behavior

From friend to foe: How the brain updates feelings toward others

By Natalia Mesa

9 July 2026 | 5 min read

See all Systems neuroscience

Books

Book cover of The Brain, In Theory by Romain Brette.

Theoretical neuroscience

‘The Brain, In Theory,’ an excerpt

By Romain Brette

7 April 2026 | 5 min read

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Computational neuroscience

David Sussillo on persistence, luck and the bonds between life and work

By Francisco J. Rivera Rosario, David Sussillo

17 March 2026 | 7 min watch

Book cover of The Fox, The Shrew, and You features silhouettes of several animals with their brains highlighted.

Evolution

‘The Fox, the Shrew, and You: How Brains Evolved,’ an excerpt

By Rogier Mars

10 March 2026 | 6 min read

The big picture

Illustration of pixelated AI models.

The big picture

Models at the speed of thought: How AI coding is reshaping theoretical neuroscience

Agentic coding makes it possible to specify a neuroscience model in hours instead of months. Seven neuroscientists weigh in on what that tectonic change may bring to the field.

By Brian DePasquale

16 June 2026 | 17 min read

Illustration of a brain that is half organic texture and half geometric pattern.

The big picture

Trading places: What happens when neuroscience turns into machine learning, and machine learning turns into neuroscience?

Neuroscience has become increasingly concerned with prediction, and machine learning with causal explanation, with each field adopting methods from the other. I asked eight experts to weigh in on what we stand to learn from this exchange.

By Samuel Gershman

23 March 2026 | 22 min read

See all The big picture