Visual cortex

Recent articles

Illustration of the brain processing different shapes.

This paper changed my life: A first glimpse into the ‘middle’ of brain processing

Work by Jeffrey Moran and Robert Desimone showed that monkeys could focus their attention on different stimuli in their visual field without shifting their gaze. Their work marked a key milestone in the emergence of cognitive neuroscience.

By Earl K. Miller
14 October 2026 | 3 min read
Research image of inputs into a single neuron in the mouse visual cortex.

‘Unbelievably beautiful’ evidence extends Nobel Prize-winning model of vision

Orientation tuning—the ability to distinguish a horizontal line from a vertical one or something in between—originates in the visual cortex, according to new mouse synapse imaging experiments.

By Claudia López Lloreda
29 May 2026 | 5 min read
Research image of brain activity in infants.

Infant visual system categorizes common objects by 2 months of age

Brain activity patterns in the ventral visual cortex appear to distinguish images across 12 categories, including birds and trees, longitudinal functional MRI scans suggest.

By Helena Kudiabor
24 February 2026 | 5 min read
Research images of the mouse visual cortex.

Astrocytes stabilize circuits in adult mouse brain

The glial cells secrete a protein that suppresses plasticity post-development.

By Holly Barker
6 January 2026 | 5 min read
Research image of mouse visual cortex neurons.

Null and Noteworthy: Downstream brain areas read visual cortex signals en masse in mice

The finding contradicts a theory that the regions prioritize neurons that are adept at identifying specific stimuli. Plus, a response to a study that questioned immune memory in astrocytes.

By Laura Dattaro
31 July 2025 | 4 min read
Two panels depict different brain wiring-like networks.

Rethinking how neural activity sculpts critical periods

New findings on the role of neural activity in developing circuits are challenging our prior notions about the rules that govern critical periods.

By Gregg Wildenberg
3 June 2025 | 5 min read
Research image of connectivity in the fly brain.

Connectomics 2.0: Simulating the brain

With a complete fly connectome in hand, researchers are taking the next step to model how brain circuits fuel function.

By Laura Dattaro
2 May 2025 | 10 min read
Detailed image of neurons in the mouse visual cortex.

Inhibitory cells work in concert to orchestrate neuronal activity in mouse brain

A cubic millimeter of brain tissue, meticulously sectioned, stained and scrutinized over the past seven years, reveals in stunning detail the role of inhibitory interneurons in brain structure and function.

By Katie Moisse
9 April 2025 | 6 min read
Portrait of Yves Fregnac.

In memoriam: Yves Frégnac, influential and visionary French neuroscientist

Frégnac, who died on 18 October at the age of 73, built his career by meeting neuroscience’s complexity straight on.

By Bahar Gholipour
18 December 2024 | 9 min read
Illustration of three columns of text with certain passages underlined and circled.

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.

By Megan Peters
16 October 2024 | 6 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Clockwise: lab mouse, zebrafish, octopus, rat pushing a cube, nematodes, fruit fly.

The term ‘model organism’ should be reserved for biological systems

By referring to artificial neural networks as model organisms, we run the risk of distorting funding priorities and disregard the explanatory power of a shared evolutionary history across biological organisms.

By Marc Coutanche
13 November 2026 | 6 min read

New phase of BRAIN Initiative spawns basal ganglia ‘parts list’

With a standardized cell naming system and infrastructure for data collection and analysis, the basal ganglia project sets the stage for a whole-brain primate atlas.

By Claudia López Lloreda
12 November 2026 | 1 min watch
Research image showing genes containing microexons in mice.

Machine-learning model spots autism-linked variants that scramble splicing

The model provides a way to investigate genetic variation in regions of the genome whose functions have been difficult to interpret.

By Giorgia Guglielmi
12 November 2026 | 4 min read