Methods

Recent articles

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

What a bird’s-eye view of half a million papers reveals about neuroscience

New research uses artificial-intellligence-driven bibliometrics to map the structural organization of neuroscience across 25 years. The field it reveals is at once thriving and theoretically adrift.

By Mac Shine
6 April 2026 | 36 min watch
A human arm and a robot arm write code together on a small blackboard.

How to teach programming in the age of AI

Scientists and educators are concerned about students using artificial intelligence to shortcut their learning. But there are also opportunities, especially when it comes to teaching neuroscience students how to code.

By Ashley Juavinett
30 March 2026 | 8 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Illustration of an open journal featuring lines of text and small illustrations of eyes and mouths.

Key role of interferon 1 in maternal immune activation, and more

Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 1 June.

By Jill Adams
9 June 2026 | 2 min read

The illusion of AI consciousness: Lessons from human unconscious processing

Complex, goal-directed and even emotionally responsive behavior can unfold without awareness, providing a useful lens for interpreting artificial systems.

By Vanessa Hadid, Karim Jerbi, John W. Krakauer
8 June 2026 | 0 min watch
Research image of cell-surface protein LPHN2.

‘Push-pull’ recipe for neural wiring used in multiple brain regions

A versatile pair of proteins steers neurons toward their targets and helps establish the brain’s sensory maps, new studies suggest.

By Holly Barker
5 June 2026 | 5 min read