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The latest audio stories from The Transmitter

Headshots of Yale researchers Yong-Hui Jiang and Jiangbing Zhou.

Supported by a $40 million NIH grant, Yale brain shuttle technology raises questions

Yale University claims its STEP platform might be able to deliver gene-editing tools into the brain via multiple routes. Researchers are eager to see more.

By Natalia Mesa
3 June 2026 | 13 min listen
Illustration of differing lines of data.

Eighteen teams analyzed the same neurophysiology dataset—and got wildly different answers

The “Brainhack” hackathon revealed that disagreement in neuroscience runs deeper than most researchers suspect—even in electrophysiology, a field that prides itself on hard data.

By Gaëlle Chapuis, Mattia Chini
1 June 2026 | 8 min listen
Illustration of scale balancing Petri dish and test tubes.

Every neuroscience lab needs an ethicist

The ethics issues that arise in neuroscience research are usually novel, unresolved and understudied. Embedding ethicists in labs helps scientists navigate these challenges and develop strategies in real time to prevent harm.

By Timothy E. Brown
27 May 2026 | 6 min listen
Myelin research image.

Beyond glucose: The brain may feed itself

Myelin may serve as an energy reserve for the brain, according to recent findings, prompting neuroscientists to rethink how the brain stores, shares and protects energy.

By Carlos Matute
26 May 2026 | 7 min listen
Research image of locus coeruleus.

Brain’s blue spot possesses unexpected structure-function ties

The spatial arrangement of neurons in the locus coeruleus of mice corresponds with the cells’ targets across the brain, according to a new study.

By Holly Barker
25 May 2026 | 5 min listen
Hand points to letters on a board.

Still no proof for facilitated spelling methods

A systematic review into whether the “rapid prompting method” or “spelling to communicate” can help autistic people express themselves comes up empty yet again.

By Brendan Borrell
21 May 2026 | 7 min listen
Billboard reads Protect Life-Saving Science.

Oregon primate center scientists fight proposed sanctuary transition

A group of employees has launched a series of campaigns to advocate for their work and argue against the center’s potential transition to an animal sanctuary.

By Calli McMurray
21 May 2026 | 7 min listen
When Autistic Kids Grow Up.

When autistic kids grow up

An autistic researcher’s paper called attention to a huge disparity in autism funding research between children and adults. It nearly derailed her life.

By Brady Huggett
20 May 2026 | 2 min listen
Collage with a portrait of Suzanne Wood.

The ‘secretly awesome’ side of a teaching career

The freedom to do “wacky” research projects that interest you is a major perk of the teaching stream, says Suzanne Wood, a teaching professor at the University of Toronto.

By Katie Moisse
20 May 2026 | 7 min listen
Faceless blue figure attempting to decipher emotion.

What can AI teach us about ‘emotions’?

Exploring why Anthropic’s AI, Claude, displays something like emotion could ultimately help us better understand the function that emotions serve in humans.

By Nicole Rust
18 May 2026 | 8 min listen

Explore more from The Transmitter

A new atlas of abstracts visualizes the field of human brain mapping—where does your work fit?

Satrajit Ghosh talks to Mac Shine about a community-built tool that places every abstract from the 2026 Organization for Human Brain Mapping meeting inside a semantic map of the broader neuroscience literature. Finding your neighbors in that space might matter more than you think.

By Mac Shine
9 June 2026 | 3 min read
Illustration of an open journal featuring lines of text and small illustrations of eyes and mouths.

Key role of interferon 1 in maternal immune activation, and more

Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 1 June.

By Jill Adams
9 June 2026 | 2 min read

The illusion of AI consciousness: Lessons from human unconscious processing

Complex, goal-directed and even emotionally responsive behavior can unfold without awareness, providing a useful lens for interpreting artificial systems.

By Vanessa Hadid, Karim Jerbi, John W. Krakauer
8 June 2026 | 0 min watch