Cognition

Recent articles

Nikolay Kukushkin discusses his book, ‘One Hand Clapping: Unraveling the Mystery of the Human Mind’

He explains how meaning arises in the interactions found throughout nature and evolution, from molecules to minds.

By Paul Middlebrooks
8 October 2025 | 1 min read

Michael Breakspear and Mac Shine explain how brain processing changes across neural population scales

Breakspear and Shine find a scale-free property of brain activity that is conserved across diverse species, suggesting that a universal principle of brain activity underlies cognition.

By Paul Middlebrooks
10 September 2025 | 1 min read
Patient being administered an EEG test.

Single-neuron recordings are helping to unravel complexities of human cognition

As this work begins to bear fruit, researchers “are becoming less afraid to ask very difficult questions that you can uniquely ask in people.”

By Claudia López Lloreda
14 March 2025 | 10 min listen
A curly line connects two pencils that are hovering over overlapping speech bubbles.

Say what? The Transmitter’s top quotes of 2024

“We’ve cured mouse-heimer’s thousands of times...”—find out who said this to a Transmitter reporter, and read our other favorite quotes from the past year.

By The Transmitter
23 December 2024 | 2 min read
Portrait of insect-cognition researcher Martin Giurfa.

Martín Giurfa y la idea de hogar

El investigador de la cognición de insectos ha hecho su trabajo en varios continentes, pero Argentina nunca está lejos de su mente.

By Gina Jiménez
20 August 2024 | 15 min read
Portrait of insect-cognition researcher Martin Giurfa.

Martin Giurfa’s concept of home

The insect-cognition researcher has done his work across continents, but Argentina is never far from his mind.

By Gina Jiménez
31 July 2024 | 15 min listen
Illustration of a starfish against a white backdrop.

Cognition in brainless organisms is redefining what it means to learn

A slew of simple creatures demonstrate forms of learning, making the case for cognitive science to expand beyond the boundaries of the human mind.

By Annie Melchor
31 January 2024 | 8 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Illustration of a neuron.

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
Research image of SCN2A neurons.

Boosting SCN2A expression reduces seizures in mice

A modified form of CRISPR amps up expression of the gene—a strategy that could apply to other gene variations linked to autism.

By Charles Q. Choi
9 October 2025 | 5 min read
Research image of neurons with variants of the KCNQ2 gene (bottom row) developing more synaptic protein groups (pink and blue) than control neurons (top row).

ADSI, leucovorin, autism registry; and more

Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 6 October.

By Jill Adams
7 October 2025 | 2 min read

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