NeuroAI

Recent articles

Advances and insights on the intersection between neuroscience and artificial intelligence

Illustration of a sheet of paper with a topography map-like pattern on it.

Why neural foundation models work, and what they might—and might not—teach us about the brain

These models can partly generalize across species, brain regions and tasks, suggesting that a set of machine-learnable rules govern neural population activity. But will we be able to understand them?

By Juan Gallego
13 April 2026 | 8 min read
A group of researchers reading while institutions crumble in the background, and giant mice appear on the horizon.

The Transmitter’s favorite essays of 2025

Throughout a tumultuous year in science, researchers opined on policy changes and funding uncertainty, as well as scientific trends and the impact of artificial-intelligence tools on the field.

By The Transmitter
24 December 2025 | 2 min read
Covers of upcoming neuroscience books.

The Transmitter’s reading list: Six upcoming neuroscience books, plus notable titles in 2025

Dig into an exploration of the fundamental aspects of intelligence, a new textbook about theoretical neuroscience and a memoir about memory research, among other new releases.

By Francisco J. Rivera Rosario
27 August 2025 | 7 min read
Computer-generated illustration of a brain in a broken jar.

Breaking the jar: Why NeuroAI needs embodiment

Brain function is inexorably shaped by the body. Embracing this fact will benefit computational models of real brain function, as well as the design of artificial neural networks.

By Bing Wen Brunton, John Tuthill
21 July 2025 | 9 min read
Digitally distorted building blocks.

The BabyLM Challenge: In search of more efficient learning algorithms, researchers look to infants

A competition that trains language models on relatively small datasets of words, closer in size to what a child hears up to age 13, seeks solutions to some of the major challenges of today’s large language models.

By Alona Fyshe
19 May 2025 | 7 min read

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

Aran Nayebi discusses a NeuroAI update to the Turing test

And he highlights the need to match neural representations across machines and organisms to build better autonomous agents.

By Paul Middlebrooks
9 April 2025 | 104 min listen
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 | 25 min read
Computer-generated illustration of a brain with a faint outline of another brain superimposed slightly above it.

Does the solution to building safe artificial intelligence lie in the brain?

Now is the time to decipher what makes the brain both flexible and dependable—and to apply those lessons to AI—before an unaligned agentic system wreaks havoc.

By Patrick Mineault
17 February 2025 | 6 min read

Dmitri Chklovskii outlines how single neurons may act as their own optimal feedback controllers

From logical gates to grandmother cells, neuroscientists have employed many metaphors to explain single neuron function. Chklovskii makes the case that neurons are actually trying to control how their outputs affect the rest of the brain.

By Paul Middlebrooks
12 February 2025 | 99 min listen

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Explore more from The Transmitter

A fragmenting cube hovers over a person reading a book.

Error equation predicts brain’s ability to generalize

Four statistical measurements of neural network geometry capture how well brains and artificial networks use what they already know to solve new problems, a study suggests.

By Natalia Mesa
10 April 2026 | 5 min read
A large, abstract shape flows out of a small box.

Embrace complexity to improve the translatability of basic neuroscience

Researchers must learn to view heterogeneity as an essential feature of the systems they study and a central consideration in experimental design, not a variable to control for or reduce.

By Linda Douw, Klaus Eyer, Lara Keuck
9 April 2026 | 5 min read

Romain Brette reveals fundamental flaws in commonly assumed neuroscience concepts

His new book, “The Brain, In Theory,” offers alternatives to many of the computer science frameworks currently driving theoretical neuroscience.

By Paul Middlebrooks
8 April 2026 | 131 min listen