Auditory system

Recent articles

Research figure of neural patterns in the brain during speech encoding.

Shifting neural code powers speech comprehension

Dynamic coding helps explain how the brain processes multiple features of speech—from the smallest units of sounds to full sentences—simultaneously.

By Claudia López Lloreda
5 March 2026 | 5 min read
A James Hudspeth.

Remembering A. James Hudspeth, hair cell explorer

Hudspeth, who died 16 August at age 79, devoted his 50-year career to untangling how the ear converts sound into electrical signals.

By Calli McMurray
21 August 2025 | 7 min read
Human head drawn in profile, brain area is red and connected to words spelled out in connected lines with nodes.

Individual neurons tune to complex speech sounds and cues

Neuropixels arrays implanted in people reveal nuances of speech perception and production that confirm results from brain-surface recordings and can even predict what someone is about to say.

By Elissa Welle
15 March 2024 | 7 min read

Tiny eardrum sounds may help sync visual, auditory perception

Studies of the oscillations reveal that horizontal and vertical eye movements generate distinct sounds.

By Shaena Montanari
26 January 2024 | 0 min watch

Explore more from The Transmitter

A fragmenting cube hovers over a person reading a book.

Error equation predicts brain’s ability to generalize

Four statistical measurements of neural network geometry capture how well brains and artificial networks use what they already know to solve new problems, a study suggests.

By Natalia Mesa
10 April 2026 | 5 min read
A large, abstract shape flows out of a small box.

Embrace complexity to improve the translatability of basic neuroscience

Researchers must learn to view heterogeneity as an essential feature of the systems they study and a central consideration in experimental design, not a variable to control for or reduce.

By Linda Douw, Klaus Eyer, Lara Keuck
9 April 2026 | 5 min read

Romain Brette reveals fundamental flaws in commonly assumed neuroscience concepts

His new book, “The Brain, In Theory,” offers alternatives to many of the computer science frameworks currently driving theoretical neuroscience.

By Paul Middlebrooks
8 April 2026 | 131 min listen