The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives

Featured

Two mice fighting.

Aggression

Synaptic changes shape winning mice into bullies

By Claudia López Lloreda

14 October 2024 | 6 min read

Illustration of an image of a landscape repeated over and over again, with some versions distorted and warped.

The big picture

What makes memories last—dynamic ensembles or static synapses?

By Jason Shepherd

14 October 2024 | 7 min read

Illustration of a mouse with cheese on its left and a drop of water on its right.

Internal state

Should I stay (and eat) or should I go? How the brain balances hunger with competing drives

By Giorgia Guglielmi

11 October 2024 | 8 min read

Latest

Cristina Savin and Tim Vogels discuss how AI has shaped their neuroscience research

The case for redefining ‘theory of mind’: Q&A with François Quesque

Sensory systems

Double-duty neurons in primary olfactory cortex pick up on more than just scent

Craft and careers

How neuroscience comics add KA-POW! to the field: Q&A with Kanaka Rajan

Former Columbia University psychiatrist committed research misconduct, says federal watchdog

Open neuroscience and data-sharing

The S-index Challenge: Develop a metric to quantify data-sharing success

Kenneth Harris and Andreas Tolias explain how AI has informed their neuroscience research

The big picture

What are mechanisms? Unpacking the term is key to progress in neuroscience

Science and society

A scientific fraud. An investigation. A lab in recovery.

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

Neural dynamics

Neural manifolds: Latest buzzword or pathway to understand the brain?

Today’s action potentials

WHAT WE ARE READING

“Nature Index 2024 Neuroscience”

in Nature

QUOTE

”
I think it’s possible that the apparent conflict between observations of engrams and drift might be due to issues of scale and subtleties in experimental design. — EVAN SCHAFFER, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF NEUROSCIENCE, ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI

UPCOMING WEBINAR

OCTOBER

29

2024

12:00 P.M. EDT

“Fly whole brain connectome revealed”

Two surreal heads touch each other’s faces.

Spectrum

The case for redefining ‘theory of mind’: Q&A with François Quesque

By Lauren Schenkman

10 October 2024 | 7 min read

SYNGAP1; executive function; synaptic density

The legacy of Steve Silberman and his book, ‘NeuroTribes’

See all Spectrum

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

Spectrum

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

By Holly Barker

3 October 2024 | 5 min read

See all Spectrum

Upcoming Online Seminars

Upcoming Webinar

Oct

16

2024

Erin Grant | Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit & Sainsbury Wellcome Centre at University College London

Use case determines the validity of neural systems comparisons

09:00 A.M. EDT

Upcoming Webinar

Oct

17

2024

Belinda Pletzer | Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg (PLUS), Austria

Characterizing hormone sensitivity along the menstrual cycle and during hormonal contraceptive use

10:15 A.M. EDT

Upcoming Webinar

Oct

25

2024

Hardy Rideout | Biomedical Research Foundation, Academy of Athens

LRRK2 – a master regulator of neurodegeneration: acting on multiple systems including neuroinflammatory signaling, vesicular trafficking, and cell death pathways

06:00 A.M. EDT

Powered by World Wide Neuro

Perspectives

Illustrated portrait of Kanaka Rajan.

Craft and careers

How neuroscience comics add KA-POW! to the field: Q&A with Kanaka Rajan

By Olivia Gieger

9 October 2024 | 7 min read

Illustration of three figures standing in front of a grid of dots and a world map.

Open neuroscience and data-sharing

The S-index Challenge: Develop a metric to quantify data-sharing success

By Loren Frank

8 October 2024 | 6 min listen

Collage of different images of brains and mechanical devices in the background with a suitcase in the foreground.

The big picture

What are mechanisms? Unpacking the term is key to progress in neuroscience

By Dani S. Bassett, Lauren N. Ross

7 October 2024 | 5 min read

Illustration of a colorful, donut-shaped object resting on a distorted plane with its own topography.

Neural dynamics

Neural manifolds: Latest buzzword or pathway to understand the brain?

By Matthew Perich

2 October 2024 | 8 min read

See all Perspectives

Synaptic

Illustrated portrait of Tim Ryan.

Synaptic

Timothy Ryan on his pivotal switch from studying particle physics to decoding synaptic transmission

By Brady Huggett

1 October 2024 | 70 min listen

Illustrated portrait of Lin Tian.

Synaptic

Biosensors and being fearless with Lin Tian

By Brady Huggett

1 September 2024 | 62 min listen

Illustrated portrait of Catherine Dulac.

Synaptic

Male and female brains, Proust, and Catherine Dulac

By Brady Huggett

1 August 2024 | 81 min listen

See all Synaptic

From bench to bot

Computer-generated illustration of a pencil.

From bench to bot

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

By Tim Requarth

3 September 2024 | 11 min read

Computer-generated illustration of a sheet of paper emanating from a computer screen.

From bench to bot

From bench to bot: Boost your writing with AI personas

By Tim Requarth

5 April 2024 | 10 min read

Computer-generated illustration of a three-dimensional box containing letters in a grid pattern.

From bench to bot

From bench to bot: How to use AI to structure your writing

By Tim Requarth

8 January 2024 | 11 min read

See all From bench to bot

Get notified whenever a new column is published in the AI: From bench to bot series.

Profiles

Portrait of insect-cognition researcher Martin Giurfa.

Neuroethology

Martín Giurfa y la idea de hogar

El investigador de la cognición de insectos ha hecho su trabajo en varios continentes, pero Argentina nunca está lejos de su mente.

By Gina Jiménez

20 August 2024 | 15 min read

Portrait of insect-cognition researcher Martin Giurfa.

Neuroethology

Martin Giurfa’s concept of home

By Gina Jiménez

31 July 2024 | 15 min listen

A photograph of Paul-Antoine Libourel.

Sleep

At the end of the earth with Paul-Antoine Libourel

By Yves Sciama

11 June 2024 | 18 min listen

See all Profiles

Open neuroscience and data-sharing

Illustration of three figures cleaning data with brooms and brushes.

Open neuroscience and data-sharing

A README for open neuroscience

By Samuel Gershman

9 September 2024 | 5 min read

Illustration of a scientist attempting to wrangle many forms of data at once: a pile of charts and graphs threatens to knock them off of their feet as they attempt to prop it up.

Open neuroscience and data-sharing

Neuroscience graduate students deserve comprehensive data-literacy education

By Letisha R. Wyatt

15 July 2024 | 6 min read

Image of neural activity in a mouse as seen through the Miniscope.

Open neuroscience and data-sharing

Designing an open-source microscope

By Daniel Aharoni

17 June 2024 | 6 min read

An illustration of a figure looking at a flow chart

Open neuroscience and data-sharing

Neuroscience needs a research-video archive

By Robert Froemke

6 May 2024 | 6 min read

See all Open neuroscience and data-sharing

Features

Illustration of a lab with a smoking crater in the middle of the floor.

Science and society

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 | 27 min listen

Research image of green and purple mouse brain slices.

Brain stimulation

Putting a bright idea to the test

A surprising wave of findings in mice suggests that light and sound flickering at 40 hertz clears the brain of Alzheimer’s-disease-linked plaques. Several companies are hoping to prove it works in people.

By Shaena Montanari

21 August 2024 | 11 min read

See all Features

Books

Illustration of a brain separated into four panes, each rendered in different colors and with different decorative elements.

Consciousness

How did consciousness evolve? An excerpt from ‘A History of Bodies, Brains, and Minds: The Evolution of Life and Consciousness’

By Francisco Aboitiz

26 August 2024 | 12 min read

Illustration of six different noses smelling in six different abstract landscapes.

Olfaction

Consciously smelling—an edited excerpt from ‘Stinking Philosophy! Smell Perception, Cognition, and Consciousness’

By Benjamin Young

26 August 2024 | 12 min read

Illustration of a group of books floating against a light blue and yellow background.

Reviews

Six new neuroscience books for fall—plus five titles you may have missed

By Francisco J. Rivera Rosario

26 August 2024 | 6 min read

Craft and careers

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

Craft and careers

Tips to navigate SfN as a trainee

By Nancy Padilla-Coreano

30 September 2024 | 5 min read

Young researcher sitting in the grass holding a pillow shaped like a fish.

Craft and careers

Seeing research through a new lens: Q&A with Pei Yuan Zhang

By Olivia Gieger

20 September 2024 | 7 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.

Craft and careers

Should I work with these people? A guide to collaboration

By Kevin Bender

10 September 2024 | 7 min read

Photograph of Theanne Griffith sitting at a table with her hands interlocked over a stack of books, with one that she has published at the very top.

Craft and careers

Crafting tales of science with Theanne Griffith

By Angie Voyles Askham

26 August 2024 | 8 min read

See all Craft and careers