Cognition

Recent articles

Illustration of human figures holding brightly colored connected dots.

The best of ‘this paper changed my life’ in 2025

From a study that upended astrocyte research to one that reignited the field of spiking neural networks, experts weighed in on the papers that significantly shaped how they think about and approach neuroscience.

By The Transmitter
24 December 2025 | 2 min read
Illustration of a group of neurons.

This paper changed my life: Nancy Padilla-Coreano on learning the value of population coding

The 2013 Nature paper by Mattia Rigotti and his colleagues revealed how mixed selectivity neurons—cells that are not selectively tuned to a stimulus—play a key role in cognition.

By Nancy Padilla-Coreano
1 December 2025 | 5 min read
Archery target.

What should the field prioritize over the next 10 years?

Respondents pointed to a range of challenges in basic neuroscience—such as understanding naturalistic behaviors, intelligence and embodied cognition—and called for more circuit-level research, more precise brain recordings and more work in alternative models. Just as many pushed for a translational pivot.

By The Transmitter
15 November 2025 | 11 min read

Nikolay Kukushkin discusses his book, ‘One Hand Clapping: Unraveling the Mystery of the Human Mind’

He explains how meaning arises in the interactions found throughout nature and evolution, from molecules to minds.

By Paul Middlebrooks
8 October 2025 | 1 min read

Michael Breakspear and Mac Shine explain how brain processing changes across neural population scales

Breakspear and Shine find a scale-free property of brain activity that is conserved across diverse species, suggesting that a universal principle of brain activity underlies cognition.

By Paul Middlebrooks
10 September 2025 | 1 min read
Patient being administered an EEG test.

Single-neuron recordings are helping to unravel complexities of human cognition

As this work begins to bear fruit, researchers “are becoming less afraid to ask very difficult questions that you can uniquely ask in people.”

By Claudia López Lloreda
14 March 2025 | 8 min read
A curly line connects two pencils that are hovering over overlapping speech bubbles.

Say what? The Transmitter’s top quotes of 2024

“We’ve cured mouse-heimer’s thousands of times...”—find out who said this to a Transmitter reporter, and read our other favorite quotes from the past year.

By The Transmitter
23 December 2024 | 2 min read
Portrait of insect-cognition researcher Martin Giurfa.

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.

Martin Giurfa’s concept of home

The insect-cognition researcher has done his work across continents, but Argentina is never far from his mind.

By Gina Jiménez
31 July 2024 | 14 min read
Illustration of a starfish against a white backdrop.

Cognition in brainless organisms is redefining what it means to learn

A slew of simple creatures demonstrate forms of learning, making the case for cognitive science to expand beyond the boundaries of the human mind.

By Annie Melchor
31 January 2024 | 8 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Illustration of Middle Eastern neuroscientists talking at a bar, eating baklava.

An Iranian, an Israeli, and a Palestinian neuroscientist walked into a bar…

That chance occurrence at an SfN social led us to organize the Middle Eastern Systems Neuroscience Symposium, and forge a plan to build a community that transcends political barriers through scientific connection.

By Arash Fassihi, Gily Ginosar, Noga Larry, Abdulraheem Nashef
28 July 2026 | 7 min read
Research image of inhibitory neurons and parvalbumin-expressing neurons.

Federal advisory panel extends comment period, and more

Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 27 July.

By Jill Adams
28 July 2026 | 1 min read

Oregon primate research center to downsize monkey colony, pivot to non-animal models

The center’s host university had been negotiating with the federal government about converting the center into an animal sanctuary. A new plan, approved today, preserves some of the center’s nonhuman primate studies.

By Calli McMurray
27 July 2026 | 5 min read