Systems neuroscience

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Research image of a fiber optic implant in a mouse brain.

Bespoke photometry system captures variety of dopamine signals in mice

The tool tracks the excitation of an engineered protein that senses dopamine’s absolute levels, including fast and slow fluctuations in real time, and offers new insights into how the signals change across the brain.

By Sydney Wyatt
21 March 2025 | 5 min read
Illustration of a woman sitting on a branch with a singing bird.

This paper changed my life: Stephanie Palmer on the ties between human speech and birdsong—and her ‘informal life coach’

A groundbreaking review by Allison Doupe, who was Palmer’s mentor, and Patricia Kuhl helped shape the field’s understanding of the neural and evolutionary dynamics of speech.

By Stephanie Palmer
18 March 2025 | 5 min read
Side view of a Tardigrade.

How tiny tardigrades could help tackle systems neuroscience questions

The eight-legged, millimeter-long animals reveal how small nervous systems produce complex behaviors and perceptual abilities, a preprint suggests.

By Dori Grijseels
11 March 2025 | 6 min read
A geometric figure looks out on an abstract horizon.

The limits of neuroscience

Truly understanding the brain requires a set of conditions we’re unlikely to meet: that knowledge about the brain is finite, and that we have both access to that knowledge and the means to understand it.

By Mark Humphries
10 March 2025 | 8 min read
Two mice sleeping.

Soft touch quells loneliness in mice

Touch modulates one of two dueling types of hypothalamic neurons that, thermostat-like, balance an animal’s drive for social interaction.

By Angie Voyles Askham
26 February 2025 | 6 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland.

Acting NIH director dismisses four neuroscientists from advisory boards

The letters they received this week did not include a reason for their termination.

By Calli McMurray, Angie Voyles Askham
25 March 2025 | 5 min read
Research image of protein synthesis in mice.

NIH neurodevelopmental assessment system now available as iPad app

Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 24 March.

By Jill Adams
25 March 2025 | 2 min read
Illustration of a face covered by several black rectangles.

Keep sex as a biological variable: Don’t let NIH upheaval turn back the clock on scientific rigor

Even in the absence of any formal instruction to do so, we should continue to hold our ourselves and our neuroscience colleagues accountable for SABV practices.

By Rebecca Shansky
25 March 2025 | 7 min read