Evolution

Recent articles

Illustration of a shrew, sandpiper, locust, axolotl, monarch butterfly, African killifish, naked mole rat, octopus, bat and cichlid.

The non-model organism “renaissance” has arrived

Meet 10 neuroscientists bringing model diversity back with the funky animals they study.

Dima Rinberg smells one of the compounds in his lab, looking at camera with a quizzical expression.

Sniffing out the mysteries of olfaction

A background in physics, and his own curiosity, have helped Dmitry Rinberg tackle the complexities of the neuroscience of smell.

By Lina Zeldovich
11 December 2024 | 13 min read
Photograph of a sea robin against a black background.

How ‘walking fish’ feel, taste hidden food with their legs

Fins-turned-legs in sea robins are innervated with touch-sensitive neurons and taste-receptor-rich cells that can detect prey buried in the sand, according to new research.

By Shaena Montanari
26 September 2024 | 5 min read
Research image of place cells plotted onto a reference zebrafish larva brain.

‘Place cells’ help guide freely swimming zebrafish larvae

The newly found cells function like those in mammals, revealing that spatial cognition evolved earlier than previously thought.

By Shaena Montanari
28 August 2024 | 5 min read
Illustration of a brain separated into four panes, each rendered in different colors and with different decorative elements.

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

In his new book, to be published in September, neuroscientist Francisco Aboitiz links consciousness back to the earliest days of biological life.

By Francisco Aboitiz
26 August 2024 | 12 min read
Photograph of neuroscientist Harvey Karten.

Remembering comparative neuroanatomy ‘great-grandfather’ Harvey Karten

The National Academy of Sciences member and pioneer in studying non-mammalian vertebrate brains died on 15 July at 89 years old.

By Sydney Wyatt
9 August 2024 | 9 min read
A marble bust of a face that is covered in real leaves.

Newly found circuit through visual cortex powers first look at faces

The superior colliculus, an evolutionarily ancient brain area responsible for eye movements, responds to faces before the canonical face areas do, a study of macaque monkeys suggests.

By Olivia Gieger
19 July 2024 | 5 min read
Research image of a lamprey.

New look at lampreys rewrites textbooks on origins of sympathetic nervous system

Sympathetic neurons pepper the embryos of the jawless fish—Earth’s first vertebrates—and overturn the idea that “fight or flight” was an innovation of jawed vertebrates.

By Shaena Montanari
17 April 2024 | 4 min listen
Illustrated portrait of Lauren O’Connell.

Setting up a frog colony and pair bonding with Lauren O’Connell

To become a scientist, O’Connell first needed to leave the family farm.

By Brady Huggett
1 March 2024 | 63 min listen
A photograph of a crow against a dark backdrop

Number-associated neurons help crows link values to symbols

Comparable neurons also exist in primates, which shared a common ancestor with crows more than 300 million years ago, suggesting that the ability to “count” evolved independently in the two lineages.

By Kenna Hughes-Castleberry
19 January 2024 | 4 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Assembloids illuminate circuit-level changes linked to autism, neurodevelopment

These complex combinations of organoids afford a closer look at how gene alterations affect certain brain networks.

By Sarah DeWeerdt
19 December 2024 | 0 min watch
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Rajesh Rao reflects on predictive brains, neural interfaces and the future of human intelligence

Twenty-five years ago, Rajesh Rao proposed a seminal theory of how brains could implement predictive coding for perception. His modern version zeroes in on actions.

By Paul Middlebrooks
18 December 2024 | 97 min listen
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