The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives

Today’s action potentials

OPEN-DATA PRIZE COMPETITION
The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences is holding an “Oligonucleotide Toxicity (OligoTox) Open Data Challenge” prize competition. The submission deadline for the first phase is 28 February.
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QUOTE

The desire to understand what it feels like inside a different animal’s body and brain has motivated much of my scientific work. — JOHN TUTHILL, PROFESSOR OF NEUROBIOLOGY AND BIOPHYSICS, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

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CALL FOR PROPOSALS
The Society for Neuroscience is accepting session and event proposals for its 2026 conference. The submission deadline is 21 January.
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Neuroscience

The state of neuroscience in 2025: An overview

The Transmitter presents a portrait of the field through four lenses: its focus, its output, its people and its funding.

By The Transmitter
15 November 2025 | 4 min read
Illustration of a neuron.

New questions around motor neurons and plasticity

A researcher’s theory hangs muscle degeneration on a broken neural circuit.

By David Adam
10 October 2025 | 9 min read
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Stars shooting upward.
Early-career researchers

The Transmitter ’s Rising Stars of Neuroscience 2025

By Francisco J. Rivera Rosario, Lauren Schneider
15 November 2025 | 23 min read
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Illustration of a series of shapes, with a few resembling human eyes.
The big picture

The visual system’s lingering mystery: Connecting neural activity and perception

Figuring out how the brain uses information from visual neurons may require new tools. I asked 10 neuroscientists what experimental and conceptual methods they think we’re missing.

By Grace Lindsay
13 October 2025 | 24 min read
A drosophila connectome.

One year of FlyWire: How the resource is redefining Drosophila research

We asked nine neuroscientists how they are using FlyWire data in their labs, how the connectome has transformed the field and what new tools they would like to see in the future.

By Francisco J. Rivera Rosario
7 October 2025 | 17 min read
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