social behaviors

Recent articles

Illustration of spiny mouse.

Learning why spiny mice play well with others

Aubrey Kelly studies the gregarious mammal to explore how the brain controls complex social behaviors “akin to friendship.”

By Hannah Thomasy
2 June 2026 | 5 min read
Research image of astrocytes in a mouse brain.

Astrocytes orchestrate oxytocin’s social effects in mice

The cells amplify oxytocin—and may be responsible for sex differences in social behavior, two preprints find.

By Holly Barker
4 March 2026 | 5 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Research image of brain cells involved with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) illuminated through genetic tools

Allen Institute sets sights on treatments for five brain diseases

The Brain Health Accelerator program aims to harness single-cell transcriptomics and cell-type-specific genetic tools to develop treatments for Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and Parkinson’s diseases, Lewy body dementia and ALS.

By Calli McMurray
2 June 2026 | 5 min read
Research image of human thalamus.

Autism-linked genes expressed in thalamus make an impact, and more

Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 1 June.

By Jill Adams
2 June 2026 | 2 min read
Illustration of differing lines of data.

Eighteen teams analyzed the same neurophysiology dataset—and got wildly different answers

The “Brainhack” hackathon revealed that disagreement in neuroscience runs deeper than most researchers suspect—even in electrophysiology, a field that prides itself on hard data.

By Gaëlle Chapuis, Mattia Chini
1 June 2026 | 7 min read