Jon Han
Illustrator
From this contributor
The challenge of defining a neural population
Our current approach is largely arbitrary. We need new methods for grouping cells, ideally by their dynamics.
The challenge of defining a neural population
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.
The Transmitter’s favorite essays and columns of 2024
From sex differences in Alzheimer’s disease to enduring citation bias, experts weighed in on important scientific and practical issues in neuroscience.
The Transmitter’s favorite essays and columns of 2024
Imagining the ultimate systems neuroscience paper
A growing body of papers on systems neuroscience and on giant simulations of neural circuits involves data beyond the point that anyone can reasonably understand end to end. Looking ahead, “paper-bots” could solve that problem.
Imagining the ultimate systems neuroscience paper
What makes memories last—dynamic ensembles or static synapses?
Teasing out how different subfields conceptualize central terms might help move this long-standing debate forward. I asked eight scientists to weigh in.
What makes memories last—dynamic ensembles or static synapses?
Explore more from The Transmitter
This paper changed my life: A technical breakthrough for memory studies
In a 2007 Science paper, Mark Mayford and his colleagues found that some neurons activated during learning are also recruited during memory retrieval. Noelia Weisstaub shares how this study and others drove an era of great progress in tool development.
This paper changed my life: A technical breakthrough for memory studies
In a 2007 Science paper, Mark Mayford and his colleagues found that some neurons activated during learning are also recruited during memory retrieval. Noelia Weisstaub shares how this study and others drove an era of great progress in tool development.
Early experience reshapes zebrafish retinal cells, alters behavior
The cells undergo a classic form of plasticity previously thought to occur only in downstream visual circuits.
Early experience reshapes zebrafish retinal cells, alters behavior
The cells undergo a classic form of plasticity previously thought to occur only in downstream visual circuits.
Loss of interneuron plasticity may be shared hallmark of neurodevelopmental conditions
Restoring an experience-dependent interneuron plasticity gene in adulthood improves memory and cuts seizures in CNTNAP2 knockout mice, a new study shows.
Loss of interneuron plasticity may be shared hallmark of neurodevelopmental conditions
Restoring an experience-dependent interneuron plasticity gene in adulthood improves memory and cuts seizures in CNTNAP2 knockout mice, a new study shows.