Representation

Recent articles

What do neuroscientists mean when they use the term ‘representation’?

A group of neuroscientists and philosophers discuss the use and misuse of the term "representation" across the cognitive sciences and how it influences the way we interpret the connection between neural, behavioral and mental activity.

By Paul Middlebrooks
4 June 2025 | 127 min listen
Photograph of the BRIDGE team and students visiting a laboratory.

Sharing Africa’s brain data: Q&A with Amadi Ihunwo

These data are “virtually mandatory” to advance neuroscience, says Ihunwo, a co-investigator of the Brain Research International Data Governance & Exchange (BRIDGE) initiative, which seeks to develop a global framework for sharing, using and protecting neuroscience data.

By Lauren Schenkman
20 May 2025 | 6 min read

Aran Nayebi discusses a NeuroAI update to the Turing test

And he highlights the need to match neural representations across machines and organisms to build better autonomous agents.

By Paul Middlebrooks
9 April 2025 | 104 min listen
Photograph of a child sitting at a laptop and performing an executive function test.

Brain imaging at the fair with Ka Ip

Does environment affect how children from diverse backgrounds perform on tests of executive function? Ip went to the Minnesota State Fair to find out.

By Angie Voyles Askham
24 September 2024 | 9 min read
Illustration of a frog in front of a composite of images of flora and fauna in the frog’s surroundings.

When do neural representations give rise to mental representations?

To answer this question, consider the animal’s umwelt, or what it needs to know about the world.

By Kevin Mitchell
13 February 2024 | 7 min read
A hand points to an illustration on a chalkboard.

From a scientist’s perspective: The Transmitter’s top five essays in 2023

From big-picture debates about theories and terms to practical tips for teaching and writing, our favorite expert-written articles offer a glimpse into what neuroscientists are thinking.

By The Transmitter
25 December 2023 | 3 min read
A duck on the water in profile, with its beak facing upwards, looks like a rabbit.

Mistaking a duck for a skvader: How a conceptual form of circular analysis may taint many neuroscience studies

These logical loops are harder to spot than circularity involving noise in the data, but they result from neglecting something closer to home: existing knowledge about the brain.

By Bahar Gholipour
22 December 2023 | 7 min read
An abstract illustration of a figure from the shoulders up with multi-colored boxes on its face

What ‘drifting representations’ reveal about the brain

How neuronal activity patterns associated with a behavior can change, even when the behavior does not — something once seen as an experimental artifact — could offer new insights about neural function.

By Angie Voyles Askham
13 December 2023 | 8 min read
Illustration of a scientist looking a grid of four pictures; each picture gets blurrier proceeding from left to right.

What are we talking about? Clarifying the fuzzy concept of representation in neuroscience and beyond

To foster discourse, scientists need to account for all the different ways they use the term “representation.”

By Francis T. Fallon, Tomás J. Ryan, John W. Krakauer, The RPPF group
13 November 2023 | 6 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Astrocytes sense neuromodulators to orchestrate neuronal activity and shape behavior

Astrocytes serve as crucial mediators of neuromodulatory processes previously attributed to direct communication between neurons, four new studies show.

By Claudia López Lloreda
27 June 2025 | 9 min listen

Authors correct image errors in Neuron paper that challenged microglia-to-neuron conversion

The issue with the supplementary figures likely does not change the conclusions of the paper, according to an outside expert.

By Shaena Montanari
26 June 2025 | 3 min read

Building a climate neuroscience subfield: Q&A with Angie Michaiel

Michaiel, a program officer at the Kavli Foundation, shares what it took to cultivate research on the relationship between climate change and the nervous system.

By Calli McMurray
26 June 2025 | 5 min read