Africa IMFAR 2017

Recent articles

An Ethiopian family sitting for a portrait.

Studies highlight need to adapt autism tests for African cultures

Some of the items on a common diagnostic test for autism do not translate well to African cultures.

By Nicholette Zeliadt
11 September 2017 | 6 min read
Children in pre-school sitting around a learning circle.

South African children with autism may lack access to schools

Only about 0.1 percent of children in the Western Cape province of South Africa have autism, according to a review of school records.

By Nicholette Zeliadt
8 September 2017 | 3 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Illustration of waterfall inside a woman's brain.

Revisiting the neural correlates of consciousness

Life happens in real time, but experience may be composed in ragtime—like the music genre, full of offbeat notes and uneven rhythms. The assumption that waking life consists of a “stream” of conscious representations has inadvertently led consciousness science to its current impasse.

By Francis T. Fallon, Michael Pitts
28 September 2026 | 7 min read
Illustration of rolling dice.

Grant review needs reform. How about we add an element of chance?

A process that uses a lottery system saves time, reduces strategic resubmission and accepts that, above a quality threshold, luck has always played a part in science funding.

By Adrien Peyrache
25 September 2026 | 6 min read
Research diagram of gene expression.

Fly neurons carry molecular signatures of their origins

The pattern of transcription factors a Drosophila neuron expresses offers clues to its lineage and birth order—and ultimately how neural circuits emerge.

By Alissa de Chassey
25 September 2026 | 5 min read