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Seattle skyline.

Reporter’s notebook: Highlights from INSAR 2025

The annual meeting brought autism researchers, advocates and clinicians to Seattle to discuss the latest research, including attempts to define subgroups, a potential new CHD8 macaque model and life expectancy gaps.

By Daisy Yuhas
15 May 2025 | 6 min listen
A researcher stands at the top of a staircase that leads to nowhere.

NIDA shutters diversity fellowship program, axes active awards

It’s unclear if the cancellation at the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse extends to the fellowships awarded by other institutes within the National Institutes of Health.

By Calli McMurray
14 May 2025 | 5 min listen
Composite illustration of Ashley Bourke, Christian Cazares, Minerva Contreras, De-Shaine Murray, Fernanda Juarez Anaya, Maeghan Murie-Mazariegos and Maribel Patiño.

‘We still exist’: How four neuroscience advocacy groups are navigating federal DEI funding cuts

Trainees from underrepresented backgrounds are losing pillars of support in the current funding climate. Grassroots mentorship organizations are stepping in to continue championing early-career researchers.

By Paige Miranda
14 May 2025 | 18 min listen
Conceptual illustration of four heads studying representations of neural mechanisms.

This paper changed my life: Marino Pagan recalls a decision-making study from four titans in the field

Valerio Mante and David Sussillo, along with their mentors Krishna Shenoy and Bill Newsome, revealed the complexity of neural population dynamics and the power of recurrent neural networks.

By Marino Pagan
13 May 2025 | 7 min listen
Two slides feature human brains, with a third slide featuring the silhouette of a brain.

Exclusive: Recruitment issues jeopardize ambitious plan for human brain atlas

A lack of six new brain donors may stop the project from meeting its goal to pair molecular and cellular data with the functional organization of the cortex.

By Calli McMurray
9 May 2025 | 6 min listen
Fred Volkmar, in a blue shirt, in front of wall of framed certificates in his office, wearing a blue shirt.

How pragmatism and passion drive Fred Volkmar—even after retirement

Whether looking back at his career highlights or forward to his latest projects, the psychiatrist is committed to supporting autistic people at every age.

By Claudia Wallis
8 May 2025 | 10 min listen
Image of brain cell activity in rat brains.

Sleep doesn’t just consolidate memories; it actively shapes them

The rapid eye movement (REM) phase preserves newly acquired memories, but deeper non-REM sleep helps to adapt and update them, according to “heroic” day-long electrode recordings in rats.

By Giorgia Guglielmi
6 May 2025 | 6 min listen
A blue 3D cube made of interlacing smooth, round tubes.

Thinking about thinking: AI offers theoretical insights into human memory

We need a new conceptual framework for understanding cognitive functions—particularly how globally distributed brain states are formed and maintained for hours.

By Terrence Sejnowski
5 May 2025 | 8 min listen
Pixelated human brain scans showing the distribution of mitochondria.

Mitochondrial ‘landscape’ shifts across human brain

Evolutionarily newer regions sport mitochondria with a higher capacity for energy production than older regions, according to the first detailed map of the organelles in a tissue slice, adding to mounting evidence that the brain features a metabolic gradient.

By Claudia López Lloreda
25 April 2025 | 7 min listen
Illustration of astrocytes in a petri dish.

This paper changed my life: Shane Liddelow on two papers that upended astrocyte research

A game-changing cell culture method developed in Ben Barres’ lab completely transformed the way we study astrocytes and helped me build a career studying their reactive substates.

By Shane Liddelow
23 April 2025 | 7 min listen

Explore more from The Transmitter

Escaping groupthink: What animals’ behavioral quirks reveal about the brain

Neuroscientists have long ignored the variability in animals’ behavioral responses in favor of studying differences across groups. But work on the brain differences that underlie that variability is beginning to pay off.

By Angie Voyles Askham
23 May 2025 | 0 min watch
Research image of the spinal meninges in mice.

Immune cells block pain in female mice only

Regulatory T cells in the spinal meninges release endogenous opioids in a sex-specific manner, new work shows.

By Angie Voyles Askham
22 May 2025 | 5 min read
A disembodied hand holds a stamp over a messy stack of papers.

Exclusive: Layoffs revoked at U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

After more than a month of uncertainty, 30 previously purged employees at the institute no longer face termination.

By Angie Voyles Askham, Sydney Wyatt
21 May 2025 | 3 min read