Perspectives

Recent articles

Expert opinions on trends and controversies in neuroscience

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
Stock photograph of several groups of people in business attire standing and having conversations.

Tips to navigate SfN as a trainee

As the mammoth annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience kicks off, here is some guidance to get the most out of it—plus a request for principal investigators to train students in “soft skills.”

By Nancy Padilla-Coreano
30 September 2024 | 5 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 children looking at a gigantic set of building blocks, some of which display genetic sequences on their surfaces.

Autism is more heritable in boys than in girls

If boys have greater inherited liability for autism, the female protective effect may not fully explain the sex difference in prevalence.

Illustration of a brain.

This paper changed my life – ‘Response of hippocampal synapses to natural stimulation patterns,’ by Dobrunz and Stevens

The work demonstrated how to effectively combine controlled in-vitro experiments and the messiness of natural brain patterns.

By Robert Froemke
17 September 2024 | 4 min read
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Dopamine and the need for alternative theories

Some experimental findings are inconsistent with the dominant model of reward prediction error, highlighting the need for alternative testable and falsifiable models for dopamine function.

By Vijay Mohan K. Namboodiri
13 September 2024 | 7 min read
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Does a new theory of dopamine replace the classic model?

My answer would be no, but the model poses challenges that will sharpen our understanding of dopamine and learning.

By Naoshige Uchida
13 September 2024 | 8 min read
Illustration with panels depicting two people working together at a computer and a high-five, and a lone researcher in the foreground, looking up.

Should I work with these people? A guide to collaboration

Kevin Bender offers advice for early-career neuroscientists on how to choose the right collaborations and avoid the bad ones.

By Kevin Bender
10 September 2024 | 7 min read
Illustration of three figures cleaning data with brooms and brushes.

A README for open neuroscience

Making data (and code) useful for yourself automatically makes it useful for others.

By Samuel Gershman
9 September 2024 | 5 min read
Computer-generated illustration of a pencil.

From bench to bot: Does AI really make you a more efficient writer?

A more significant benefit may lie in improving quality, refining tone and reducing cognitive burden. But beware of bias.

By Tim Requarth
3 September 2024 | 11 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

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 | 26 min read
Illustration of hands sewing red and white threads in a DNA-like pattern into a blue-gray fabric.

Untangling biological threads from autism’s phenotypic patchwork reveals four core subtypes

People belonging to the same subtype share genetic variants, behaviors and often co-occurring diagnoses, according to a new preprint.

By Holly Barker
3 October 2024 | 5 min read
Research image of neurons.

CRISPR upregulation of genes; interneuron migration; maternal COVID-19 exposure

Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 30 September.

By Jill Adams
1 October 2024 | 2 min read