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Chimpanzee neural organoid.

Viral remnant in chimpanzees silences brain gene humans still use

The retroviral insert appears to inadvertently switch off a gene involved in brain development.

By Siddhant Pusdekar
27 January 2026 | 6 min listen

Why emotion research is stuck—and how to move it forward

Studying how organisms infer indirect threats and understand changing contexts can establish a common framework that bridges species and levels of analysis.

By Joshua P. Johansen
26 January 2026 | 10 min listen
Two heatmap-like mouse silhouettes overlaid with a grid of ones and zeroes.

How artificial agents can help us understand social recognition

Neuroscience is chasing the complexity of social behavior, yet we have not answered the simplest question in the chain: How does a brain know “who is who”? Emerging multi-agent artificial intelligence may help accelerate our understanding of this fundamental computation.

By Eunji Kong
16 January 2026 | 6 min listen
Crowd seen from above.

Common and rare variants shape distinct genetic architecture of autism in African Americans

Certain gene variants may have greater weight in determining autism likelihood for some populations, a new study shows.

By Laura Dattaro
15 January 2026 | 5 min listen
Research image of stem cells derived from people of African ancestry.

Bringing African ancestry into cellular neuroscience

Two independent teams in Africa are developing stem cell lines and organoids from local populations to explore neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative conditions.

By Lauren Schenkman
14 January 2026 | 8 min listen
A network of connected dots of light hovers inside a translucent human head, with figures in lab coats pointing to it from the foreground.

Computational psychiatry needs systems neuroscience

Dissecting different parallel processing streams may help us understand the mechanisms underlying psychiatric symptoms, such as delusions, and unite human and animal research.

By Michael Halassa
13 January 2026 | 8 min listen
Illustration of ants marching back to an anthill.

This paper changed my life: John Tuthill reflects on the subjectivity of selfhood

Wittlinger, Wehner and Wolf’s 2006 “stilts and stumps” Science paper revealed how ants pull off extraordinary feats of navigation using a biological odometer, and it inspired Tuthill to consider how other insects sense their own bodies.

By John Tuthill
12 January 2026 | 8 min listen
Rhesus macaque monkey makes an intimidating face.

Some facial expressions are less reflexive than previously thought

A countenance such as a grimace activates many of the same cortical pathways as voluntary facial movements.

By Natalia Mesa
8 January 2026 | 5 min listen
Mouse on top of drinking water spout in crowded cage.

Cracking the neural code for emotional states

Rather than act as a simple switchboard for innate behaviors, the hypothalamus encodes an animal's internal state, which influences behavior.

By Natalia Mesa
8 January 2026 | 10 min listen
Two goats headbutting.

Neuro’s ark: How goats can model neurodegeneration

Since debunking an urban legend that headbutting animals don’t damage their brain, Nicole Ackermans has been investigating how the behavior correlates with neurodegeneration.

By Calli McMurray
7 January 2026 | 5 min listen

Explore more from The Transmitter

Research image of the mouse dorsal horn.

Cell atlas cracks open ‘black box’ of mammalian spinal cord development

The atlas details the genetics, birth dates and gene-expression signatures of roughly 150 neuron subtypes in the dorsal horn of the mouse spinal cord.

By Natalia Mesa
3 February 2026 | 5 min read
Research image of fish.

Pangenomic approaches to the genetics of autism, and more

Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 2 February.

By Jill Adams
3 February 2026 | 2 min read
Figure resembling Rodin's The Thinker made from paper scraps.

Betting blind on AI and the scientific mind

If the struggle to articulate an idea is part of how you come to understand it, then tools that bypass that struggle might degrade your capacity for the kind of thinking that matters most for actual discovery.

By Tim Requarth
2 February 2026 | 11 min read

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