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What is the state of neuroscience?

In this 2025 special report, The Transmitter surveys the research landscape: How is basic neuroscience changing, and where do its practitioners think it is headed?

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Today’s action potentials

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WEBINAR
NOVEMBER
26
2025
The British Neuroscience Association is hosting a webinar on “structural inequalities in research funding and recognition.”
12PM – 1PM GMT
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NEW RESEARCH
A longitudinal study of neurocognitive development in monkeys published in Nature Neuroscience links “white matter maturation to neural activity changes in adolescent cognitive development.”
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QUOTE

What we are seeing here is less-than-perfect rescue, but the good news is even if things are less than perfect, one can still ameliorate many major neurodevelopmental phenotypes. — KEVIN BENDER, PROFESSOR OF NEUROLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO

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Neuroscience

The state of neuroscience in 2025: An overview

The Transmitter presents a portrait of the field through four lenses: its focus, its output, its people and its funding.

By The Transmitter
15 November 2025 | 4 min read
Illustration of a neuron.

New questions around motor neurons and plasticity

A researcher’s theory hangs muscle degeneration on a broken neural circuit.

By David Adam
10 October 2025 | 9 min read
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Composite of headshots of researchers who opened new labs in the past several years.
Community

The Transmitter’s New Lab Directory

By Francisco J. Rivera Rosario
15 November 2025 | 21 min read
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A drosophila connectome.

One year of FlyWire: How the resource is redefining Drosophila research

We asked nine neuroscientists how they are using FlyWire data in their labs, how the connectome has transformed the field and what new tools they would like to see in the future.

By Francisco J. Rivera Rosario
7 October 2025 | 17 min read
Illustration of a hand drawing lines between different points on the outline of a brain.

Beyond Newtonian causation in neuroscience: Embracing complex causality

The traditional mechanistic framework must give way to a richer understanding of how brains actually generate behavior over time.

By Luiz Pessoa
22 September 2025 | 20 min read
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