The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives

Featured

Kevin Dunbar.

Brain imaging

In memoriam: Kevin Dunbar, who traced the neural basis of human reasoning

By Alissa de Chassey

24 July 2026 | 6 min read

Research image of neuronal migration.

Developmental neuroscience

Neurons engage in risky, DNA-breaking business during migration

By Sarah Thau

24 July 2026 | 4 min read

Spectrum

Study questions DSM-5’s combining of autism traits

By Lauren Schenkman

23 July 2026 | 5 min read

Latest

Craft and careers

After the ‘Thank you’ slide: When lived trauma enters trauma neuroscience

Science and society

Redefining underrepresentation in global neuroscience

In memoriam: Susumu Tonegawa, ‘intellectual giant’

Brain computer interfaces

How BCIs reveal the speaking brain

Purkinje cells evolved to have increasingly complex architecture

Sleep

Making waves: Sleep-like brain activity in awake mice lowers sleep need, boosts memory

Making an impact through academic administration

Is our intelligence rooted in how living organisms are organized?

AI in neuroscience: Promise, friction, progress

Neuroscientists reckon with the gap between artificial intelligence’s potential and reality.

Perspectives

Illustration of man holding a microphone facing an audience.

Craft and careers

After the ‘Thank you’ slide: When lived trauma enters trauma neuroscience

By Ziv Ben-Zion

22 July 2026 | 7 min read

Illustration of scientist facing a fractured landscape.

Science and society

Redefining underrepresentation in global neuroscience

By Keerthana Iyer, Arish Mudra Rakshasa-Loots, Ana Silva, Violetta Zujovic

21 July 2026 | 5 min read

Illustration of birdsong, bird brain, and DNA.

This paper changed my life

This paper changed my life: Embracing an early model for naturalistic neuroscience

By Sidarta Ribeiro

14 July 2026 | 4 min read

Illustration of lucid dreaming.

Perception

Watching the mind build a world: Lucid dreaming as a model for generative perception

By Magdalena Paluchowska

13 July 2026 | 8 min read

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It’s a really important area of research to constantly look at the reliability and fit of the construct for the diagnosis.
— ADAM GUASTELLA, PROFESSOR OF CHILD AND YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH, UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY AND THE CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL AT WESTMEAD READ MORE

Child sitting on a trampoline.

Spectrum

Study questions DSM-5’s combining of autism traits

By Lauren Schenkman

23 July 2026 | 5 min read

Separate neuronal pathways mediate social, attentional behaviors

When autistic kids grow up

When autistic kids grow up, Chapter 5: The war dial

See all Spectrum

Research image of proliferating neural cells.

Spectrum

Diverse autism genes derail common developmental pathways

By Holly Barker

8 July 2026 | 5 min read

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Funding and policy

Photo collage featuring a portrait of Tempest McDonald.

When autistic kids grow up

When autistic kids grow up, Chapter 4: How did things unfold?

By Brady Huggett

25 June 2026 | 27 min listen

Photo collage featuring Tempest McDonald.

When autistic kids grow up

When autistic kids grow up, Chapter 3: Would there be data?

By Brady Huggett

18 June 2026 | 27 min listen

Photo collage of Tempest McDonald.

When autistic kids grow up

When autistic kids grow up, Chapter 2: “You need to go to college”

By Brady Huggett

11 June 2026 | 28 min listen

Burke Neurological Institute.

Neurology

Exclusive: Brain and spinal cord institute halts research, citing funding problems

By Lauren Schenkman

4 June 2026 | 5 min read

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Craft and careers

Soha Ashrafi photo collage art.

Frameshift

Making an impact through academic administration

By Katie Moisse

15 July 2026 | 7 min read

Illustration of scientist in lab coat looking at shelves of computer network models.

Artificial intelligence

Mass-produced science is coming. What happens to scientists?

By Kenneth Harris

9 July 2026 | 9 min read

Photo illustration of Kaela Singleton.

Frameshift

Getting grants feels good, but giving them is even better

By Katie Moisse

19 June 2026 | 8 min read

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Features

Headshots of Yale researchers Yong-Hui Jiang and Jiangbing Zhou.

gene editing

Supported by a $40 million NIH grant, Yale brain shuttle technology raises questions

Yale University claims its STEP platform might be able to deliver gene-editing tools into the brain via multiple routes. Researchers are eager to see more.

By Natalia Mesa

3 June 2026 | 11 min read

Researcher Russell Poldrack's face closeup, with a scanner seen out of focus behind him.

Brain imaging

A brief history of precision self-scanning

When a researcher solved a logistical problem by going rogue, the idea proved remarkably infectious.

By Lauren Gravitz

21 January 2026 | 13 min read

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This paper changed my life

Illustration of cells converting from fibroblasts to myoblasts.

This paper changed my life

This paper changed my life: Learning the molecular rules of cell identity

By Ardem Patapoutian

17 June 2026 | 6 min read

Neural networks illustration.

This paper changed my life

This paper changed my life: Appreciating John Hopfield’s brilliant neural network

By Maria Geffen

15 May 2026 | 5 min read

Illustration of a monkey pushing a button.

This paper changed my life

This paper changed my life: Erin Calipari ponders the nuances of rewarding and aversive stimuli

By Erin Calipari

14 April 2026 | 5 min read

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Publishing

Adriano Aguzzi.

Ethics

Neuropathologist not guilty of research misconduct, says university probe

By Dalmeet Singh Chawla

8 July 2026 | 5 min read

Red note stuck in a stack of paper.

Publishing

Scientists decry conference’s use of hidden prompts to snare AI peer reviews

By Dalmeet Singh Chawla

1 July 2026 | 4 min read

Computer code.

Publishing

Exclusive: Neuroscience journal editor resigns over automation concerns

By Dalmeet Singh Chawla

17 June 2026 | 5 min read

Illustration of pixelated eye and stacks of paper.

Artificial intelligence

Writing science that humans and machines can read

By Rachel Parkinson

15 June 2026 | 7 min read

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PROFILES

Stars shooting upward.

Early-career researchers

The Transmitter ’s Rising Stars of Neuroscience 2025

We recognize the outstanding achievements of 25 neuroscientists who stand to shape the field for years to come.

By Francisco J. Rivera Rosario, Lauren Schneider

15 November 2025 | 23 min read

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

Nachum Ulanovsky sits against a black background with one bat in his hands and another with its wings spread above his head.

Neuroethology

Diving in with Nachum Ulanovsky

By Claudia López Lloreda

16 October 2025 | 14 min read

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Systems neuroscience

Research image of mouse brain.

Sleep

Making waves: Sleep-like brain activity in awake mice lowers sleep need, boosts memory

By Alissa de Chassey

16 July 2026 | 4 min read

Two lab mice fighting.

Social behavior

From friend to foe: How the brain updates feelings toward others

By Natalia Mesa

9 July 2026 | 5 min read

Learning and memory

‘Completely new learning mechanism’ drives navigation in fruit flies

By Natalia Mesa

7 July 2026 | 0 min watch

Research image showing dopamine level spikes.

Systems neuroscience

Reward-learning algorithm hardwired into dopamine circuit

By Natalia Mesa

5 June 2026 | 5 min read

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Books

Book cover of The Brain, In Theory by Romain Brette.

Theoretical neuroscience

‘The Brain, In Theory,’ an excerpt

By Romain Brette

7 April 2026 | 5 min read

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Computational neuroscience

David Sussillo on persistence, luck and the bonds between life and work

By Francisco J. Rivera Rosario, David Sussillo

17 March 2026 | 7 min watch

Book cover of The Fox, The Shrew, and You features silhouettes of several animals with their brains highlighted.

Evolution

‘The Fox, the Shrew, and You: How Brains Evolved,’ an excerpt

By Rogier Mars

10 March 2026 | 6 min read

The big picture

Illustration of pixelated AI models.

The big picture

Models at the speed of thought: How AI coding is reshaping theoretical neuroscience

Agentic coding makes it possible to specify a neuroscience model in hours instead of months. Seven neuroscientists weigh in on what that tectonic change may bring to the field.

By Brian DePasquale

16 June 2026 | 17 min read

Illustration of a brain that is half organic texture and half geometric pattern.

The big picture

Trading places: What happens when neuroscience turns into machine learning, and machine learning turns into neuroscience?

Neuroscience has become increasingly concerned with prediction, and machine learning with causal explanation, with each field adopting methods from the other. I asked eight experts to weigh in on what we stand to learn from this exchange.

By Samuel Gershman

23 March 2026 | 22 min read

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