Methods

Recent articles

A crumpled sheet of paper with a fly printed on it.

FlyBase funding squashed amid Harvard grant terminations

The team behind the Drosophila genetics database is now requesting donations from labs to keep the resource afloat.

By Calli McMurray
4 June 2025 | 4 min read
Illustration of a brain with a window opening into it.

To understand the brain as a network organ, we must image cortical layers

Human neuroscience research has largely overlooked this spatial scale—which bridges cells and brain areas. But new advances in functional MRI technology are changing that.

By Laurentius Huber
2 June 2025 | 7 min listen
Photograph of the BRIDGE team and students visiting a laboratory.

Sharing Africa’s brain data: Q&A with Amadi Ihunwo

These data are “virtually mandatory” to advance neuroscience, says Ihunwo, a co-investigator of the Brain Research International Data Governance & Exchange (BRIDGE) initiative, which seeks to develop a global framework for sharing, using and protecting neuroscience data.

By Lauren Schenkman
20 May 2025 | 6 min read
Tic-tac-toe board with pills representing x’s and o’s.

Basic pain research ‘is not working’: Q&A with Steven Prescott and Stéphanie Ratté

Prescott and Ratté critique the clinical relevance of preclinical studies in the field and highlight areas for improvement.

By Sydney Wyatt
18 April 2025 | 7 min read
Research image of olfactory bulb activity.

Smell studies often use unnaturally high odor concentrations, analysis reveals

It’s time to fashion olfactory neuroscience stimuli based on odor concentrations in the wild, say study investigators Elizabeth Hong and Matt Wachowiak.

By Calli McMurray
16 April 2025 | 8 min listen
Research image comparing methods of identifying genes and biological processes linked to Alzheimer's disease.

New tool may help untangle downstream effects of autism-linked genes

The statistical approach helps scientists better control for both measured and unmeasured confounders in gene-expression data, revealing causal relationships between autism-linked genetic variants and downstream cellular effects, such as impaired neuron development.

By Giorgia Guglielmi
27 March 2025 | 5 min read
Data streams into a transparent box.

Accepting “the bitter lesson” and embracing the brain’s complexity

To gain insight into complex neural data, we must move toward a data-driven regime, training large models on vast amounts of information. We asked nine experts on computational neuroscience and neural data analysis to weigh in.

By Eva Dyer, Blake Richards
26 March 2025 | 8 min read
Research image of a fiber optic implant in a mouse brain.

Bespoke photometry system captures variety of dopamine signals in mice

The tool tracks the excitation of an engineered protein that senses dopamine’s absolute levels, including fast and slow fluctuations in real time, and offers new insights into how the signals change across the brain.

By Sydney Wyatt
21 March 2025 | 5 min read
Side view of a Tardigrade.

How tiny tardigrades could help tackle systems neuroscience questions

The eight-legged, millimeter-long animals reveal how small nervous systems produce complex behaviors and perceptual abilities, a preprint suggests.

By Dori Grijseels
11 March 2025 | 6 min read
A geometric figure looks out on an abstract horizon.

The limits of neuroscience

Truly understanding the brain requires a set of conditions we’re unlikely to meet: that knowledge about the brain is finite, and that we have both access to that knowledge and the means to understand it.

By Mark Humphries
10 March 2025 | 8 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Sounding the alarm on pseudoreplication: Q&A with Constantinos Eleftheriou and Peter Kind

Most studies of neurological disorders in mice erroneously treat multiple samples from a single animal as independent replicates, according to a new analysis. But scientists and journals can take steps to curb this practice.

By Lauren Schenkman
12 June 2025 | 6 min read

Psychedelics meta-analysis retracted after authors request ‘significant changes’

While working on a similar analysis last year, an independent researcher spotted inconsistencies in the now-retracted paper.

By Marta Hill
11 June 2025 | 2 min read
Research image of mouse brain slices.

Some dopamine neurons signal default behaviors to reinforce habits

Movement-sensing neurons that target the striatum influence a mouse’s choice of action by favoring routine.

By Holly Barker
11 June 2025 | 5 min listen