SFN 2013

Recent articles

Maternal infection may alter neuronal signals, connections

Pups born to pregnant mice infected with a mock virus are known to show changes in their immune system. These effects may in turn impair proper brain signaling, according to results presented Saturday at the 2013 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego.

By Laura Geggel
9 June 2017 | 4 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.

SfN 2013 comes to a close

A packed week of research at the 2013 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego brought a flurry of breaking news and a creative combination of emerging research tools.

By Greg Boustead
18 November 2013 | 6 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.

New imaging method details brain abnormalities in mice

A new imaging technique that can assemble finely detailed pictures of an individual mouse’s brain in less than a day is being used to explore mouse models of autism. Data from the first two models were presented Wednesday at the 2013 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego.

By Sarah DeWeerdt
14 November 2013 | 3 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.

RNA bits vary in social, auditory brain areas in autism

People with autism show differences from controls in the levels of microRNAs, small noncoding bits of RNA, in the social and sound-processing parts of the brain. Unpublished results from the postmortem study were presented Wednesday at the 2013 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego.

By Laura Geggel
14 November 2013 | 3 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.

Rabies-like virus, robot make contact with single neurons

A new technique allows researchers to track the movement of a molecule along a single neuron’s projections. The technique, adapted for zebrafish, was presented Monday at the 2013 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego.

By Laura Geggel
14 November 2013 | 3 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.

Men and women process faces in different parts of the brain

Conventional wisdom about how men and women process images of faces may be wrong, with significant implications for autism research, suggests an analysis of unpublished brain imaging data presented at the 2013 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego.

By Sarah DeWeerdt
14 November 2013 | 3 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.

Compendium of mouse brains highlights autism’s diversity

By mapping the brains of not 1 but 27 mouse models of autism, researchers are making sense of the widely divergent structural changes seen in autism brains, they reported Wednesday at the 2013 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego.

By Jessica Wright
14 November 2013 | 4 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.

Technique visualizes networks processing theory of mind

Pairing brain imaging with simple videos that mimic social interactions can help pinpoint the brain regions responsible for inferring others’ thoughts. Researchers described this approach Sunday at the 2013 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego.

By Jessa Netting
14 November 2013 | 3 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.

Reactions from SfN 2013

Tune in for daily updates and reactions from attendees at the 2013 Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego, California.

By Greg Boustead
14 November 2013 | 9 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.

Atlas maps flow of neurons in the mouse brain

The Allen Institute for Brain Science is mapping the complex projections of neurons throughout the mouse brain. They presented results from the first 1,400 brains on Tuesday at the 2013 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego.

By Jessica Wright
13 November 2013 | 3 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Colorful illustration of a latticework of proteins.

Cracking the code of the extracellular matrix

Despite evidence for a role in plasticity and other crucial functions, many neuroscientists still view these proteins as “brain goop.” The field needs technical advances and a shift in scientific thinking to move beyond this outdated perspective.

By Anna Victoria Molofsky
17 January 2025 | 5 min read
A repeated DNA strand extends farther from the left side of the image with each iteration.

Huntington’s disease gene variants past a certain size poison select cells

The findings—providing “the next step in the whole pathway”—help explain the disease’s late onset and offer hope that it has an extended therapeutic window.

By Angie Voyles Askham
16 January 2025 | 6 min read
Research image highlighting different brain regions.

X marks the spot in search for autism variants

Genetic variants on the X chromosome, including those in the gene DDX53, contribute to autism’s gender imbalance, two new studies suggest.

By Holly Barker
16 January 2025 | 6 min read