Methods

Recent articles

Illustration of pixelated AI models.

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 pixelated eye and stacks of paper

Writing science that humans and machines can read

Large language models are now routinely used to search, summarize and synthesize the literature at scales impossible for any individual researcher—yet scientific publishing has not adapted to that reality.

By Rachel Parkinson
15 June 2026 | 7 min read

A new atlas of abstracts visualizes the field of human brain mapping—where does your work fit?

Satrajit Ghosh talks to Mac Shine about a community-built tool that places every abstract from the 2026 Organization for Human Brain Mapping meeting inside a semantic map of the broader neuroscience literature. Finding your neighbors in that space might matter more than you think.

By Mac Shine
9 June 2026 | 40 min watch

What counts as a ‘naturalistic’ behavior?

Nedah Nemati explains how neuroscience methods and the lived experience of the scientists themselves shape how we define the behaviors we seek to explain.

By Paul Middlebrooks
3 June 2026 | 1 min read
Illustration of differing lines of data.

Eighteen teams analyzed the same neurophysiology dataset—and got wildly different answers

The “Brainhack” hackathon revealed that disagreement in neuroscience runs deeper than most researchers suspect—even in electrophysiology, a field that prides itself on hard data.

By Gaëlle Chapuis, Mattia Chini
1 June 2026 | 7 min read
Faceless blue figure attempting to decipher emotion.

What can AI teach us about ‘emotions’?

Exploring why Anthropic’s AI, Claude, displays something like emotion could ultimately help us better understand the function that emotions serve in humans.

By Nicole Rust
18 May 2026 | 7 min read

The silent majority: How astrocytes shape the brain across scales

Melissa Cooper talks to Mac Shine about her new work that reveals how these glial cells—long dismissed as the brain’s housekeepers—wire together in precise, long-range networks that remodel in response to experience.

By Mac Shine
12 May 2026 | 29 min watch
typing on computer.

Why expertise won’t protect you from AI’s influence

When writing a grant or reasoning about a problem, artificial intelligence can exert a subtle bias that often goes undetected, even if we’re doing our best to be aware of it.

By Tim Requarth
4 May 2026 | 6 min read

Novel assembloid illuminates serotonin changes linked to 22q11.2 deletion

The combination of a serotonin-producing organoid with an organoid based on the developing cerebral cortex offers a new way to investigate neuromodulation.

By Sarah DeWeerdt
30 April 2026 | 0 min watch
Illustration of two planet-like spheres orbiting one another.

Can AI do neuroscience without understanding?

Prediction without understanding sustained astronomy through a thousand years of epicycles. Artificial intelligence is now offering neuroscience the same deal.

By Anthony Zador
27 April 2026 | 6 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

When Autistic Kids Grow Up.

When autistic kids grow up

An autistic researcher’s paper called attention to a huge disparity in autism funding research between children and adults. It nearly derailed her life.

By Brady Huggett
18 June 2026 | 2 min listen
Photo collage of Tempest McDonald.

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

With just a high school equivalency degree and struggling as a single mother, Tempest McDonald is forced to shift her priorities.

By Brady Huggett
18 June 2026 | 28 min listen
Photo collage of Tempest McDonald.

When autistic kids grow up, Chapter 1: Those people

What leads an autism researcher to publish an intentionally inflammatory paper accusing the NIH of discrimination?

By Brady Huggett
18 June 2026 | 24 min listen