Systems neuroscience

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Gloved hand reaches out to touch a mouse.

This paper changed my life: Ishmail Abdus-Saboor on balancing the study of pain and pleasure

A 2013 Nature paper from David Anderson’s lab revealed a group of sensory neurons involved in pleasurable touch and led Abdus-Saboor down a new research path.

By Ishmail Abdus-Saboor
13 February 2026 | 7 min read
A network of connected dots of light hovers inside a translucent human head, with figures in lab coats pointing to it from the foreground.

Computational psychiatry needs systems neuroscience

Dissecting different parallel processing streams may help us understand the mechanisms underlying psychiatric symptoms, such as delusions, and unite human and animal research.

By Michael Halassa
13 January 2026 | 7 min read
Mouse on top of drinking water spout in crowded cage.

Cracking the neural code for emotional states

Rather than act as a simple switchboard for innate behaviors, the hypothalamus encodes an animal's internal state, which influences behavior.

By Natalia Mesa
8 January 2026 | 8 min read
Books.

The Transmitter’s most-read neuroscience book excerpts of 2025

Books by Nachum Ulanovsky, Nicole Rust, and Andrew Iwaniuk and Georg Striedter made the list of some of the year's most engaging neuroscience titles.

By The Transmitter
24 December 2025 | 2 min read
Adam Kampff.

Remembering Adam Kampff, neuroscience educator and researcher

Kampff’s do-it-yourself approach inspired a generation of neuroscientists.

By Lauren Schneider
24 December 2025 | 6 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Illustration with silhouettes of a human, bat and nonhuman primate.

Neuroscience has a species problem

If our field is serious about building general principles of brain function, cross-species dialogue must become a core organizing principle rather than an afterthought.

By Nanthia Suthana
16 February 2026 | 7 min read
A boy and girl run in a field.

Sex bias in autism drops as age at diagnosis rises

The disparity begins to level out after age 10, raising questions about why so many autistic girls go undiagnosed earlier in childhood.

By Helena Kudiabor
13 February 2026 | 4 min read
Research image of the mouse dentate gyrus.

Microglia implicated in infantile amnesia

The glial cells could explain the link between maternal immune activation and autism-like behaviors in mice.

By Lauren Schneider
12 February 2026 | 5 min read

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