Emotion

Recent articles

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 | 7 min read

Why emotion research is stuck—and how to move it forward

Studying how organisms infer indirect threats and understand changing contexts can establish a common framework that bridges species and levels of analysis.

By Joshua P. Johansen
26 January 2026 | 0 min watch
Mouse on top of drinking water spout in crowded cage.

Cracking the neural code for emotional states

Rather than act as a simple switchboard for innate behaviors, the hypothalamus encodes an animal's internal state, which influences behavior.

By Natalia Mesa
8 January 2026 | 8 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Barbara Finlay looking at a glass jar with a brain.

Remembering Barbara Finlay, ‘maverick’ of evolutionary neuroscience

Finlay, who died on 12 September, championed the idea that developmental constraints dictate how evolution sculpts brains, a concept she used to model the timing of hundreds of events and align them across mammalian species.

By Calli McMurray
23 October 2026 | 8 min read
A crow looking at a screen showing a circle of white dots on a black background.

Crows have brains ‘in the fast lane’

The birds accurately complete decision-making tasks twice as fast as primates, although their endbrains look considerably different.

By Sarah Thau
22 October 2026 | 4 min read
A boy manipulates blocks at a table while sitting across from a woman taking notes.

Prevalence of profound autism declines with new definition

The updated, more precise definition used in a CDC study includes adaptive scores.

By Brianna Abbott
22 October 2026 | 5 min read