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In-depth analysis of important topics in neuroscience

A figure walks a narrow path in a canyon.

Static pay, shrinking prospects fuel neuroscience postdoc decline

Postdoctoral researchers sponsored by the National Institutes of Health now toil longer than ever before, for less money. They are responding accordingly.

By Katie Moisse
31 January 2025 | 20 min read
Illustration of a lab with a smoking crater in the middle of the floor.

A scientific fraud. An investigation. A lab in recovery.

Science is built on trust. What happens when someone destroys it?

By Calli McMurray
4 October 2024 | 27 min listen
Research image of green and purple mouse brain slices.

Putting a bright idea to the test

A surprising wave of findings in mice suggests that light and sound flickering at 40 hertz clears the brain of Alzheimer’s-disease-linked plaques. Several companies are hoping to prove it works in people.

By Shaena Montanari
21 August 2024 | 11 min read
an illustration of scientists parachuting

The perils of parachute research

Scientists who study autism in lower-income countries are working to end practices that exploit or ignore collaborators and communities on the ground.

By Linda Nordling
6 June 2024 | 11 min read
Illustration of a series of squares containing distinct patterns.

Can an emerging field called ‘neural systems understanding’ explain the brain?

This mashup of neuroscience, artificial intelligence and even linguistics and philosophy of mind aims to crack the deep question of what "understanding" is, however un-brain-like its models may be.

By George Musser
5 June 2024 | 21 min listen
Close-up of a green glass slide embedded with dozens of tiny electrodes.

Making cancer nervous

Nerve cells in the brain and throughout the body can turbocharge tumor growth — a finding that not only expands conventional ideas about the nervous system but points to novel therapeutic targets for a range of malignancies.

By Sarah DeWeerdt
13 November 2023 | 25 min listen
Photograph of a gloved hand pointing to a computer screen that is displaying an image of a mouse brain.

Uncertainty and excitement surround one company’s cell therapy for epilepsy

After 10 years of work, Neurona may have the data to quiet its skeptics. But its ongoing clinical trial will be the ultimate test.

By Angie Voyles Askham
5 October 2023 | 20 min listen
Research video of a zebrafish larva (zoomed in on the gut) being given glucose.

On the periphery: Thinking ‘outside the brain’ offers new ideas about autism

Neuronal alterations outside the brain may help to explain a host of the condition’s characteristic traits, including sensory changes, gut problems and motor differences.

By Sarah DeWeerdt
13 April 2023 | 20 min read
Coraline with her family at home in Pennsylvania.

The promise of telehealth in autism diagnoses

The COVID-19 pandemic forced a reckoning, in which autism clinicians had to redefine best practices and expand how children are evaluated. The remote assessments they developed may help solve a persistent problem: the long wait families endure to get a diagnosis in the United States.

By Lydia Denworth
15 February 2023 | 22 min read
Three groups of people meet and mix at a crossroads.

Autism research at the crossroads

The power struggle between researchers, autistic self-advocates and parents is threatening progress across the field.

By Brady Huggett
25 January 2023 | 31 min listen

Explore more from The Transmitter

Grid of black-and-white headshots of neuroscience trainees.

‘A gut punch:’ How U.S. neuroscience trainees are grappling with diversity-based funding flux

Ten trainees spoke with The Transmitter about how the precarious state of U.S. federal funding is affecting their research and career plans.

By Calli McMurray, Angie Voyles Askham, Claudia López Lloreda
14 February 2025 | 2 min read
A brain made up of a matrix of small, predominately blue dots.

‘Bioethics and Brains: A Disciplined and Principled Neuroethics,’ an excerpt

In their new book, published earlier this week, Giordano and Shook examine how ethics can guide neuroscience research and its real-world applications.

By James Giordano, John Shook
14 February 2025 | 6 min read
A young child in a blue shirt sits in a red chair and speaks to an adult at the edge of the frame.

AI tool estimates social ability by analyzing speech

The system’s code and training data—drawn from one of the largest databases of speech recordings from autistic people—are openly available.

By Charles Q. Choi
13 February 2025 | 5 min read