Neural dynamics

Recent articles

Nicole Rust on her new book, ‘Elusive Cures’

Rust discusses how understanding the brain as a complex dynamical system will help us accelerate treatments for brain disorders.

By Paul Middlebrooks
18 June 2025 | 93 min listen

Dean Buonomano explores the concept of time in neuroscience and physics

He outlines why he thinks integrated information theory is unscientific and discusses how timing is a fundamental computation in brains.

By Paul Middlebrooks
23 April 2025 | 111 min listen
Abstract illustration of overlapping lines.

Claims of necessity and sufficiency are not well suited for the study of complex systems

The earliest studies on necessary and sufficient neural populations were performed on simple invertebrate circuits. Does this logic still serve us as we tackle more sophisticated outputs?

By Grace Lindsay
7 February 2025 | 6 min read
Research image of mouse brain scans.

Widely distributed brain areas sync to orchestrate decisions in rodents

Multiple brain areas synchronize their activity to help a rodent accumulate the evidence it needs to make a choice, two new studies suggest.

By Claudia López Lloreda
29 October 2024 | 7 min read
Illustration of a colorful, donut-shaped object resting on a distorted plane with its own topography.

Neural manifolds: Latest buzzword or pathway to understand the brain?

When you cut away the misconceptions, neural manifolds present a conceptually appropriate level at which systems neuroscientists can study the brain.

By Matthew Perich
2 October 2024 | 8 min read
Illustration of distorted lines of different colors being pulled into a box where they are smoothed in a single multicolored line.

Averaging is a convenient fiction of neuroscience

But neurons don’t take averages. This ubiquitous practice hides from us how the brain really works.

By Mark Humphries
23 September 2024 | 7 min read
Illustration of three-dimensional blocks with wavy edges assembled together like lego bricks.

Neural-network analysis posits how brains build skills

Discrete computational subunits may offer mix-and-match motifs for cognition.

By Alla Katsnelson
7 August 2024 | 7 min read
Portrait of Kaspar Podgorski standing in his lab wearing a helmet with a climbing rope over his shoulder.

Climbing to new heights: Q&A with Kaspar Podgorski

The optical physiologist tracks neural computations inside the lab and scales sheer rock faces outside—even after a life-changing fall.

By Elissa Welle
21 June 2024 | 8 min read
Research image of neurons in the rat olfactory bulb.

Neurons in rat olfactory bulb ‘feel the pulse’

Mechanical receptors can detect intracranial pressure changes caused by blood flow, which enables neurons to synchronize with the heartbeat.

By Calli McMurray
26 March 2024 | 6 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Astrocytes sense neuromodulators to orchestrate neuronal activity and shape behavior

Astrocytes serve as crucial mediators of neuromodulatory processes previously attributed to direct communication between neurons, four new studies show.

By Claudia López Lloreda
27 June 2025 | 9 min listen

Authors correct image errors in Neuron paper that challenged microglia-to-neuron conversion

The issue with the supplementary figures likely does not change the conclusions of the paper, according to an outside expert.

By Shaena Montanari
26 June 2025 | 3 min read

Building a climate neuroscience subfield: Q&A with Angie Michaiel

Michaiel, a program officer at the Kavli Foundation, shares what it took to cultivate research on the relationship between climate change and the nervous system.

By Calli McMurray
26 June 2025 | 5 min read