This paper changed my life
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Neuroscientists respond to a set of questions to reflect on a paper that profoundly influenced their career and how they think about their research.
This paper changed my life: Stephanie Palmer on the ties between human speech and birdsong—and her ‘informal life coach’
A groundbreaking review by Allison Doupe, who was Palmer’s mentor, and Patricia Kuhl helped shape the field’s understanding of the neural and evolutionary dynamics of speech.

This paper changed my life: Stephanie Palmer on the ties between human speech and birdsong—and her ‘informal life coach’
A groundbreaking review by Allison Doupe, who was Palmer’s mentor, and Patricia Kuhl helped shape the field’s understanding of the neural and evolutionary dynamics of speech.
This paper changed my Life: Bill Newsome reflects on a quadrilogy of classic visual perception studies
The 1970s papers from Goldberg and Wurtz made ambitious mechanistic studies of higher brain functions seem feasible.

This paper changed my Life: Bill Newsome reflects on a quadrilogy of classic visual perception studies
The 1970s papers from Goldberg and Wurtz made ambitious mechanistic studies of higher brain functions seem feasible.
This paper changed my life: ‘A massively parallel architecture for a self-organizing neural pattern recognition machine,’ by Carpenter and Grossberg
This paper taught me that we can use mathematical modeling to understand how neural networks are organized—and led me to a doctoral program in the department led by its authors.

This paper changed my life: ‘A massively parallel architecture for a self-organizing neural pattern recognition machine,’ by Carpenter and Grossberg
This paper taught me that we can use mathematical modeling to understand how neural networks are organized—and led me to a doctoral program in the department led by its authors.
This paper changed my life: ‘Histone demethylation mediated by the nuclear amine oxidase homolog LSD1,’ from the Shi Lab
This paper defined key rules of epigenomic regulation and shaped how I study chromatin plasticity as a mechanism for experience-dependent changes in the brain.

This paper changed my life: ‘Histone demethylation mediated by the nuclear amine oxidase homolog LSD1,’ from the Shi Lab
This paper defined key rules of epigenomic regulation and shaped how I study chromatin plasticity as a mechanism for experience-dependent changes in the brain.
This paper changed my life: ‘Spontaneous cortical activity reveals hallmarks of an optimal internal model of the environment,’ from the Fiser Lab
Fiser’s work taught me how to think about grounding computational models in biologically plausible implementations.

This paper changed my life: ‘Spontaneous cortical activity reveals hallmarks of an optimal internal model of the environment,’ from the Fiser Lab
Fiser’s work taught me how to think about grounding computational models in biologically plausible implementations.
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.

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.
This paper changed my life: ‘Selective erasure of a fear memory’ from the Josselyn Lab
This groundbreaking 2009 paper set a foundation for the types of memories researchers could manipulate and inspired my own approach to science.

This paper changed my life: ‘Selective erasure of a fear memory’ from the Josselyn Lab
This groundbreaking 2009 paper set a foundation for the types of memories researchers could manipulate and inspired my own approach to science.
Explore more from The Transmitter
Noninvasive technologies can map and target human brain with unprecedented precision
But to fully grasp the tools’ potential, we need to better understand how electric and magnetic fields interact with the brain.

Noninvasive technologies can map and target human brain with unprecedented precision
But to fully grasp the tools’ potential, we need to better understand how electric and magnetic fields interact with the brain.
During decision-making, brain shows multiple distinct subtypes of activity
Person-to-person variability in brain activity might represent meaningful differences in cognitive processes, rather than random noise.

During decision-making, brain shows multiple distinct subtypes of activity
Person-to-person variability in brain activity might represent meaningful differences in cognitive processes, rather than random noise.
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.

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.