The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives
Featured
Protein tug-of-war controls pace of synaptic development, sets human brains apart
By
Holly Barker
23 October 2025 | 7 min read
Neurons tune electron transport chain to survive onslaught of noxious stimuli
By
Viviane Callier
22 October 2025 | 5 min listen
Vicente Raja brings ecological psychology concepts to neuroscience
By
Paul Middlebrooks
22 October 2025 | 99 min listen
Today’s action potentials
“Satellite glial cells: Shaping peripheral input into the brain-body axis?”
By
Pauline Meriau et al. in Neuron
“Cortical evidence accumulation for visual perception occurs irrespective of reports”
By
François Stockart et al. in Nature Communications
“FMRP regulates adult human cortical excitability via cyclic-AMP signalling”
By
Max JJ Knops et al. in bioRxiv
Upcoming Webinars
October
28
2025
Beyond category: Revealing core representational axes of na…
Martin Hebart | Justus Liebig University Giessen
November
3
2025
Organization of thalamic networks and mechanisms of dysfunc…
Vasileios Zikopoulos | Boston University
November
11
2025
Seeing Through Memory Systems
Caroline E. Robertson | Dartmouth College
This paper changed my life: Sandra Jurado marvels at the first-ever 3D model of a synaptic vesicle
By
Sandra Jurado
21 October 2025 | 6 min listen
Computational neuroscience
Whole-brain, bottom-up neuroscience: The time for it is now
By
Edward Boyden, Konrad Körding
20 October 2025 | 9 min read
The big picture
The visual system’s lingering mystery: Connecting neural activity and perception
By
Grace Lindsay
13 October 2025 | 5 min read
One year of FlyWire: How the resource is redefining Drosophila research
By
Francisco J. Rivera Rosario
7 October 2025 | 19 min listen
Spectrum logo
Gene-activity map of developing brain reveals new clues about autism’s sex bias
By
Giorgia Guglielmi
16 October 2025 | 6 min listen
Spectrum
Boosting SCN2A expression reduces seizures in mice
By
Charles Q. Choi
9 October 2025 | 5 min read
Community
Fly database secures funding for another year, but future remains in flux
By
Calli McMurray
17 October 2025 | 3 min read
Spectrum
Autism researchers ‘pleasantly surprised’ by list of NIH data project grantees, despite initial concerns
By
Calli McMurray
2 October 2025 | 10 min read
Funding
NIH awarded 37 percent fewer neuroscience-related grants in 2025 than in past years
By
Natalia Mesa
29 September 2025 | 4 min read
International scientific collaboration is more necessary—yet more challenging—than ever
By
Lucina Q. Uddin
15 September 2025 | 6 min listen
Should neuroscientists ‘vibe code’?
By
Benjamin Dichter
25 August 2025 | 9 min listen
What U.S. science stands to lose without international graduate students and postdoctoral researchers
By
Joshua R. Sanes
28 July 2025 | 7 min listen
How to build a truly global computational neuroscience community
By
Megan Peters, Bradley Roberts
23 July 2025 | 9 min listen
New questions around motor neurons and plasticity
A researcher’s theory hangs muscle degeneration on a broken neural circuit.
By
David Adam
10 October 2025 | 11 min listen
Cephalopods, vision’s next frontier
For decades, scientists have been teased by the strange but inaccessible cephalopod visual system. Now, thanks to a technological breakthrough from a lab in Oregon, data are finally coming straight from the octopus brain.
By
Calli McMurray
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27 May 2025 | 14 min listen
This paper changed my life: Dan Goodman on a paper that reignited the field of spiking neural networks
By
Dan Goodman
17 September 2025 | 5 min listen
This paper changed my life: Victoria Abraira on a tasty link between circuits and behavior
By
Victoria Abraira
22 July 2025 | 5 min listen
From bench to bot: Why AI-powered writing may not deliver on its promise
By
Tim Requarth
2 September 2025 | 8 min listen
From bench to bot
Keeping it personal: How to preserve your voice when using AI
By
Tim Requarth
3 March 2025 | 12 min read
Diving in with Nachum Ulanovsky
With an eye toward realism, the neuroscientist, who has a new study about bats out today, creates microcosms of the natural world to understand animal behavior.
By
Claudia López Lloreda
16 October 2025 | 14 min listen
Motor behavior
Facial movements telegraph cognition in mice
By
Lauren Schneider
30 September 2025 | 0 min watch
Michael Breakspear and Mac Shine explain how brain processing changes across neural population scales
By
Paul Middlebrooks
10 September 2025 | 1 min read
Decision-making
Everything everywhere all at once: Decision-making signals engage entire brain
By
Claudia López Lloreda
3 September 2025 | 5 min read
The Transmitter’s reading list: Six upcoming neuroscience books, plus notable titles in 2025
By
Francisco J. Rivera Rosario
27 August 2025 | 10 min listen
‘What Is Intelligence?’: An excerpt
By
Blaise Agüera y Arcas
23 September 2025 | 9 min read
‘Bird Brains and Behavior,’ an excerpt
By
Andrew Iwaniuk, Georg Striedter
5 August 2025 | 9 min read
‘Elusive Cures: Why Neuroscience Hasn’t Solved Brain Disorders—and How We Can Change That,’ an excerpt
By
Nicole Rust
10 June 2025 | 9 min read
Beyond Newtonian causation in neuroscience: Embracing complex causality
The traditional mechanistic framework must give way to a richer understanding of how brains actually generate behavior over time.
By
Luiz Pessoa
22 September 2025 | 25 min listen
Emotion research has a communication conundrum
In 2025, the words we use to describe emotions matter, but their definitions are controversial. Here, I unpack the different positions in this space and the rationales behind them—and I invite 13 experts to chime in.
By
Nicole Rust
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5 September 2025 | 37 min listen