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A brain shape outlined in cylindrical dials with multi colored wires stretched between them.

Transforming AI models into useful model organisms

These systems were not built to explain the brain. But treating them as model organisms that we can perturb and evolve will move us closer to that goal.

By Mariya Toneva
22 June 2026 | 6 min read
Hand points to letters on a board.

Still no proof for facilitated spelling methods

A systematic review into whether the “rapid prompting method” or “spelling to communicate” can help autistic people express themselves comes up empty yet again.

By Brendan Borrell
21 May 2026 | 6 min read
Research figure of neural patterns in the brain during speech encoding.

Shifting neural code powers speech comprehension

Dynamic coding helps explain how the brain processes multiple features of speech—from the smallest units of sounds to full sentences—simultaneously.

By Claudia López Lloreda
5 March 2026 | 5 min read
Language-responsive regions light up in red on a series of brain scans.

Cerebellum responds to language like cortical areas

One of four language-responsive cerebellar regions may encode meaningful information, much like the cortical language network in the left hemisphere, according to a new study.

By Natalia Mesa
6 February 2026 | 5 min read
A see-through human brain with circuits inside it.

‘Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language,’ an excerpt

In his new book, Hickok provides a detailed overview of the research into the circuits that control speech and language. In this excerpt from Chapter 5, he shares how meeting his colleague David Poeppel led to them developing the theory for bilateral speech perception.

By Gregory Hickok
2 December 2025 | 8 min read
A man with glasses reads from a paper with a graph-like pattern of peaks and valleys on it.

The buzziest neuroscience papers of 2023, 2024

The field took note of work on brain-computer interfaces for speech, the mechanism of psychedelics, a broader definition of hippocampal representations, and more.

By Calli McMurray, Francisco J. Rivera Rosario
15 November 2025 | 18 min read
Photograph of a real bird looking at a model bird.

Robots marry natural neuroscience, experimental control to probe animal interactions

Faux fish and birds are helping researchers decipher some of the rules that govern schooling and squawking, among other social behaviors.

By Calli McMurray
19 September 2025 | 7 min read
Digitally distorted building blocks.

The BabyLM Challenge: In search of more efficient learning algorithms, researchers look to infants

A competition that trains language models on relatively small datasets of words, closer in size to what a child hears up to age 13, seeks solutions to some of the major challenges of today’s large language models.

By Alona Fyshe
19 May 2025 | 7 min read
Mock-up of the Neuropixels probe inserted into brain tissue.

Tracking single neurons in the human brain reveals new insight into language and other human-specific functions

Better technologies to stably monitor cell populations over long periods of time make it possible to study neural coding and dynamics in the human brain.

By Edward Chang, Jason Chung
28 April 2025 | 7 min read

Gabriele Scheler reflects on the interplay between language, thought and AI

She discusses how verbal thought shapes cognition, why inner speech is foundational to human intelligence and what current artificial-intelligence models get wrong about language.

By Paul Middlebrooks
26 March 2025 | 96 min listen

Explore more from The Transmitter

Illustration of birdsong, bird brain, and DNA.

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

A 1992 PNAS paper showed how birdsong upregulates the expression of an immediate early gene in bird forebrains. The work revealed to Ribeiro the importance of studying molecular responses in naturalistic contexts.

By Sidarta Ribeiro
14 July 2026 | 4 min read
Illustration of an open journal featuring lines of text and small illustrations of eyes and mouths.

Major ischemic events in autistic people, and more

Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 13 July.

By Jill Adams
14 July 2026 | 1 min read
Illustration of lucid dreaming.

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

Lucid dreaming offers a rare opportunity to observe and probe perception from within.

By Magdalena Paluchowska
13 July 2026 | 8 min read