The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives

Featured

Composite image of a brain probe, a test tube and a brain scan.

Human neurotechnology

Why the 21^st-century neuroscientist needs to be neuroethically engaged

By Karen Rommelfanger

12 May 2025 | 6 min read

Two slides feature human brains, with a third slide featuring the silhouette of a brain.

Brain mapping

Exclusive: Recruitment issues jeopardize ambitious plan for human brain atlas

By Calli McMurray

9 May 2025 | 6 min read

Fred Volkmar, in a blue shirt, in front of wall of framed certificates in his office, wearing a blue shirt.

Spectrum

How pragmatism and passion drive Fred Volkmar—even after retirement

By Claudia Wallis

8 May 2025 | 9 min read

Latest

The brain’s quiet conductor: How hidden cells fine-tune arousal

Oscar Ferrante, Rony Hirschhorn and Alex Lepauvre discuss putting integrated information and global neuronal workspace theories of consciousness to the test

Sleep

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

Human neurotechnology

Thinking about thinking: AI offers theoretical insights into human memory

Connectomics 2.0: Simulating the brain

‘These plans are simply not acceptable’: Q&A with Helen Tager-Flusberg

CDC autism prevalence numbers warrant attention—but not in the way RFK Jr. proposes

Federal funding cuts imperil next generation of autism researchers

Null and noteworthy

Null and Noteworthy: Reanalysis contradicts report of immune memory in astrocytes

‘Perturb and record’ optogenetics probe aims precision spotlight at brain structures

Human neurotechnology

Tracking single neurons in the human brain reveals new insight into language and other human-specific functions

Today’s action potentials

DEADLINE EXTENDED

Submit nominees for Society for Neuroscience awards by 15 May.

QUOTE

”
NIH grants have time frames, and eventually, if we’re not successful, we’ll have to make some choices. — ED LEIN, SENIOR INVESTIGATOR, THE ALLEN INSTITUTE FOR BRAIN SCIENCE

NEW RESEARCH

“Cycling on the freeway: The perilous state of open-source neuroscience software”

By Britta U. Westner et al. in Imaging Neuroscience

Perspectives

Conceptual illustration of four heads studying representations of neural mechanisms.

This paper changed my life

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

By Marino Pagan

13 May 2025 | 6 min read

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Attention

The brain’s quiet conductor: How hidden cells fine-tune arousal

By Mac Shine

7 May 2025 | 59 min watch

A blue 3D cube made of interlacing smooth, round tubes.

Human neurotechnology

Thinking about thinking: AI offers theoretical insights into human memory

By Terrence Sejnowski

5 May 2025 | 7 min read

Illustration of overlapping, multi-colored human head silhouettes.

Spectrum

CDC autism prevalence numbers warrant attention—but not in the way RFK Jr. proposes

By Lynn Waterhouse

1 May 2025 | 6 min read

See all Perspectives

Fred Volkmar, in a blue shirt, in front of wall of framed certificates in his office, wearing a blue shirt.

Spectrum

How pragmatism and passion drive Fred Volkmar—even after retirement

By Claudia Wallis

8 May 2025 | 9 min read

Altered translation in SYNGAP1-deficient mice; and more

‘These plans are simply not acceptable’: Q&A with Helen Tager-Flusberg

See all Spectrum

Illustration of overlapping, multi-colored human head silhouettes.

Spectrum

CDC autism prevalence numbers warrant attention—but not in the way RFK Jr. proposes

By Lynn Waterhouse

1 May 2025 | 6 min read

See all Spectrum

Upcoming Online Seminars

Upcoming Seminar

May

13

2025

Russel Epstein | U Penn

Cognitive maps, navigational strategies, and the human brain

08:00 A.M. EDT

Upcoming Seminar

May

13

2025

Franco Pestilli | University of Texas, Austin, USA

Harnessing Big Data in Neuroscience: From Mapping Brain Connectivity to Predicting Traumatic Brain Injury

06:00 A.M. EDT

Upcoming Seminar

May

14

2025

Patrik Ernfors | Karolinska Institute

SSFN Webinar – Pain research

06:00 A.M. EDT

POWERED BY WORLD WIDE NEURO

Funding and policy

Illustration of a lab coat being wiped away.

Spectrum

Federal funding cuts imperil next generation of autism researchers

By Brian Boyd

30 April 2025 | 5 min read

A clinician holds a clipboard while someone else sits on a couch.

Spectrum

Expediting clinical trials for profound autism: Q&A with Matthew State

By Lauren Schenkman

24 April 2025 | 8 min read

NIH building cut by a red line, a section of the building falls out of the frame.

Funding

Proposed NIH budget cut threatens ‘massive destruction of American science’

By Angie Voyles Askham

17 April 2025 | 3 min read

People help each other climb up a supersized human brain.

Community

As federal funders desert mentorship programs for marginalized students, trainee-led initiatives fill the gap

By Christian Cazares, Maribel Patiño

11 April 2025 | 5 min read

See all funding and policy

Craft and careers

Illustration of a scientist reaching toward a shelf of beakers in the shape of a speech bubble.

Outreach

How to communicate the value of curiosity-driven research

By Anthony Zador

4 March 2025 | 5 min read

A student in a cap and gown sits alone in a row of folding chairs in front of a large brick building.

Academia

Neuroscience Ph.D. programs adjust admissions in response to U.S. funding uncertainty

By Claudia López Lloreda, Calli McMurray

3 March 2025 | 7 min read

See all Craft and careers

decorative blue background.

Nominate rising stars in neuroscience for our 2025 report.

Recognize early-career researchers who have made outstanding contributions to the field. Selected nominees will be featured on our website and in our annual book.

Features

Illustration of a paper draft covered in notes and sign-off signatures, and surrounded by many hands reaching towards it.

Academia

The last two-author neuroscience paper?

Author lists on papers have ballooned, and it’s getting hard to discern contribution.

By Lydia Denworth

25 February 2025 | 3 min read

A figure walks a narrow path in a canyon.

Academia

Static pay, shrinking prospects fuel neuroscience postdoc decline

Postdoctoral researchers sponsored by the National Institutes of Health now toil longer than ever before, for less money. They are responding accordingly.

By Katie Moisse

31 January 2025 | 20 min read

See all Features

Human neurotechnology

Mock-up of the Neuropixels probe inserted into brain tissue.

Human neurotechnology

Tracking single neurons in the human brain reveals new insight into language and other human-specific functions

By Edward Chang, Jason Chung

28 April 2025 | 7 min read

Man with EEG sensors on his head.

Human neurotechnology

Noninvasive technologies can map and target human brain with unprecedented precision

By Bruce Rosen

21 April 2025 | 9 min listen

Close-up of high-resolution fMRI images.

Human neurotechnology

Functional MRI can do more than you think

By Laura Lewis

14 April 2025 | 8 min listen

See all Human neurotechnology

From bench to bot

Computer-generated image of a waveform.

From bench to bot

Keeping it personal: How to preserve your voice when using AI

By Tim Requarth

3 March 2025 | 12 min read

Computer-generated illustration of a black box with many lines coming into its left side and a compressed stream coming out of its right side.

From bench to bot

From bench to bot: How important is prompt engineering?

By Tim Requarth

28 October 2024 | 8 min read

Computer-generated illustration of a pencil.

From bench to bot

From bench to bot: Does AI really make you a more efficient writer?

By Tim Requarth

3 September 2024 | 11 min read

See all From bench to bot

Get notified whenever a new column is published in the AI: From bench to bot series.

PROFILES

Raphael Yuste leaning on a bench in his lab. A red filter colors the scene.

Neural networks

Releasing the Hydra with Rafael Yuste

Losing HHMI Investigator status prompted Yuste to study neural networks in a new way.

By Brady Huggett, Shaena Montanari

4 April 2025 | 10 min read

A speech bubble containing multiple smaller speech bubbles.

Science and society

Amid confusion around U.S. science, some neuroscientists prepare to rally

By Sydney Wyatt

4 March 2025 | 2 min read

Grid of black-and-white headshots of neuroscience trainees.

Funding

‘A gut punch:’ How U.S. neuroscience trainees are grappling with diversity-based funding flux

By Calli McMurray, Angie Voyles Askham, Claudia López Lloreda

14 February 2025 | 2 min read

See all Profiles

Open neuroscience and data-sharing

Illustration of a funnel taking abstract shapes in at the top and spouting an organized flow of shapes out at the bottom.

The big picture

To keep or not to keep: Neurophysiology’s data dilemma

By Nima Dehghani

25 November 2024 | 5 min read

Illustration of three figures standing in front of a grid of dots and a world map.

Open neuroscience and data-sharing

The S-index Challenge: Develop a metric to quantify data-sharing success

By Loren Frank

8 October 2024 | 6 min listen

Illustration of three figures cleaning data with brooms and brushes.

Open neuroscience and data-sharing

A README for open neuroscience

By Samuel Gershman

9 September 2024 | 5 min read

Illustration of a scientist attempting to wrangle many forms of data at once: a pile of charts and graphs threatens to knock them off of their feet as they attempt to prop it up.

Open neuroscience and data-sharing

Neuroscience graduate students deserve comprehensive data-literacy education

By Letisha R. Wyatt

15 July 2024 | 6 min read

See all Open neuroscience and data-sharing

Books

Illustration of a treeline in front of a human brain.

Systems neuroscience

‘Natural Neuroscience: Toward a Systems Neuroscience of Natural Behaviors,’ an excerpt

By Nachum Ulanovsky

15 April 2025 | 9 min read

A brain made up of a matrix of small, predominately blue dots.

Ethics

‘Bioethics and Brains: A Disciplined and Principled Neuroethics,’ an excerpt

By James Giordano, John Shook

14 February 2025 | 6 min read

The word Doctored spelled out on pills.

Science and society

‘Doctored: Fraud, Arrogance, and Tragedy in the Quest to Cure Alzheimer’s,’ an excerpt

By Charles Piller

4 February 2025 | 9 min read

The big picture

Data streams into a transparent box.

NeuroAI

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.

By Eva Dyer, Blake Richards

26 March 2025 | 8 min read

Illustration of an image of a landscape repeated over and over again, with some versions distorted and warped.

The big picture

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.

By Jason Shepherd

14 October 2024 | 7 min read

See all The big picture