Systems neuroscience

Recent articles

Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Catch up on what you missed from our recent coverage, and get breaking news alerts.

Brain registers spatial location outside hippocampus

A more complex picture of how an animal’s brain tracks its location is starting to emerge.

By Natalia Mesa
5 November 2026 | 1 min watch
Stock image of branching dendrites.

How brains prevent ‘catastrophic forgetting’

Dendrite-specific inhibition lets overlapping neuronal assemblies form across brain areas without erasing existing memories, a new modeling study suggests.

By Natalia Mesa
28 October 2026 | 6 min read
Stock photo of a group of neurons.

Finding neuroheterogeneity’s sweet spot

Once thought to be detrimental to memory processing, neuronal diversity—at the right ‘Goldilocks’ dose—is a new boon to theoretical neuroscience.

By Natalia Mesa
20 October 2026 | 7 min read
Illustration of two hands grasping a pink oval and a green oval, bordered on the left and right by columns of red ovals and multicolor and gray circles.

How new technologies can bring primatologists and systems neuroscientists together

The two groups study the same behavioral phenomena yet rarely interact or read each other's work—a mutual blind spot that weakens both fields. New technologies offer a chance to bring them together.

By Sjoerd Murris
15 October 2026 | 6 min read
Headshots of Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel.

How Nobel Prize-winning optogenetics has revolutionized neuroscience

The technique has enabled neuroscientists to target brain circuits and cells with unprecedented specificity, transforming the study of memory, interoception, brain disorders and reward, among other domains.

Explore more from The Transmitter

Scans of brains using the OPM-MEG method.

Language development during the first 1,000 days; and more

Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 9 November.

By Jill Adams
10 November 2026 | 2 min read
Illustration of brain with many connecting lines.

What ‘Brain Flows’ gets right

Michael W. Cole’s new book makes a convincing case that the dynamic movement of signals underpins just about everything the brain does, though it misses mention of relevant theoretical and single-cell work.

By Daniel Graham
10 November 2026 | 6 min read
Illustration of a binocular view of a hilly path leading towards a temple.

Amid funding uncertainty, graduate neuroscience programs in the U.S. adapt

The Transmitter surveyed 50 graduate program directors to learn how they’re faring. Securing labs for new students is one of the greatest concerns.

By Emily Singer
9 November 2026 | 15 min read