• Collage of black researchers, buildings at HBCUs and scientific equipment.
  • Illustration of a fly in various poses.
  • Photograph of Theanne Griffith sitting at a table with her hands interlocked over a stack of books, with one that she has published at the very top.
  • Composite illustration of Ashley Bourke, Christian Cazares, Minerva Contreras, De-Shaine Murray, Fernanda Juarez Anaya, Maeghan Murie-Mazariegos and Maribel Patiño.
  • Photograph of Ciona Kelly.
  • Illustration of overlapping silhouettes of two faces in profile facing a matrix of dots of various colors and sizes.
  • A photograph of researcher Aya Osman
  • Headshots of Philip Adeniyi, Samir Ahboucha, Willias Masocha and Daniel Gams Massi.

Today’s action potentials

A SCIENCE AND AN ART
Jacob A. Westerberg et al. reflect on artworks of various formats that were inspired by neuroscience and submitted to the 15th edition of “Art of Neuroscience.”
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QUOTE

If you just think about extreme physiology or anatomy but you don’t study the behavior, then you could be missing something amazing. — KENNETH CATANIA, PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY

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HOW IT’S DONE
In a new paper, Caleb Weinreb et al. find that “spontaneous behavior is organized as a succession of self-directed tasks” and identify “principles of neural control that are common to structured tasks and spontaneous exploration.”
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Spectrum logo
Researcher Russell Poldrack's face closeup, with a scanner seen out of focus behind him.
Brain imaging

A brief history of precision self-scanning

When a researcher solved a logistical problem by going rogue, the idea proved remarkably infectious.

By Lauren Gravitz
21 January 2026 | 13 min read
Illustration of two hands holding an abstract geometric object that resembles a human brain.
Neuroscience

The state of neuroscience in 2025: An overview

The Transmitter presents a portrait of the field through four lenses: its focus, its output, its people and its funding.

By The Transmitter
15 November 2025 | 4 min read
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Stars shooting upward.
Early-career researchers

The Transmitter ’s Rising Stars of Neuroscience 2025

By Francisco J. Rivera Rosario, Lauren Schneider
15 November 2025 | 23 min read
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Illustration of a series of shapes, with a few resembling human eyes.
The big picture

The visual system’s lingering mystery: Connecting neural activity and perception

Figuring out how the brain uses information from visual neurons may require new tools. I asked 10 neuroscientists what experimental and conceptual methods they think we’re missing.

By Grace Lindsay
13 October 2025 | 24 min read
A drosophila connectome.

One year of FlyWire: How the resource is redefining Drosophila research

We asked nine neuroscientists how they are using FlyWire data in their labs, how the connectome has transformed the field and what new tools they would like to see in the future.

By Francisco J. Rivera Rosario
7 October 2025 | 17 min read
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