The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives
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Exclusive: Issues with dozens of papers prompt inquiry into prolific stroke researcher
Today’s action potentials
”We’re really good at finding single variants with large effects and combinations of variants each with very small effects. … This [approach] is, what I would say, the next step. — TYCHELE TURNER, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF GENETICS, WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
Everything, everywhere, all at once: Inside the chaos of Alzheimer’s disease
On the importance of reading (just not too much)
Rethinking how neural activity sculpts critical periods
Sounding the alarm on pseudoreplication: Q&A with Constantinos Eleftheriou and Peter Kind
Upcoming Online Seminars
NIH cuts quash $323 million for neuroscience research and training
NIH autism database announcement raises concerns among researchers
FlyBase funding squashed amid Harvard grant terminations
Multisite connectome teams lose federal funding as result of Harvard cuts
How to communicate the value of curiosity-driven research
Neuroscience Ph.D. programs adjust admissions in response to U.S. funding uncertainty
Keeping it personal: How to preserve your voice when using AI
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.
Why the 21st-century neuroscientist needs to be neuroethically engaged
Thinking about thinking: AI offers theoretical insights into human memory
From bench to bot: How important is prompt engineering?
From bench to bot: Does AI really make you a more efficient writer?
From bench to bot: Boost your writing with AI personas
Neuroscientist Gerry Fischbach, in his own words
In 2023, I had the privilege of sitting down with Gerry over the course of several days and listening as he told the story of his life and career—including stints as dean or director of such leading institutions as Columbia University and NINDS—so that we could record it for posterity.
Amina Abubakar translates autism research and care for Kenya
How pragmatism and passion drive Fred Volkmar—even after retirement
To keep or not to keep: Neurophysiology’s data dilemma
The S-index Challenge: Develop a metric to quantify data-sharing success
A README for open neuroscience
‘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
‘Bioethics and Brains: A Disciplined and Principled Neuroethics,’ an excerpt
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.
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.