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Recent articles

Portrait of insect-cognition researcher Martin Giurfa.

Martín Giurfa y la idea de hogar

El investigador de la cognición de insectos ha hecho su trabajo en varios continentes, pero Argentina nunca está lejos de su mente.

By Gina Jiménez
20 August 2024 | 15 min read
Photograph of neuroscientist Harvey Karten.

Remembering comparative neuroanatomy ‘great-grandfather’ Harvey Karten

The National Academy of Sciences member and pioneer in studying non-mammalian vertebrate brains died on 15 July at 89 years old.

By Sydney Wyatt
9 August 2024 | 9 min read
Portrait of insect-cognition researcher Martin Giurfa.

Martin Giurfa’s concept of home

The insect-cognition researcher has done his work across continents, but Argentina is never far from his mind.

By Gina Jiménez
31 July 2024 | 15 min listen
Black-and-white headshots of Nancy Kanwisher, Winrich Freiwald and Doris Tsao.

2024 Kavli Prize awarded for research on face-selective brain areas

Studies by Nancy Kanwisher, Winrich Freiwald and Doris Tsao revealed how the brains of humans and other primates identify faces and helped establish an understanding of brain specialization.

By Olivia Gieger
12 June 2024 | 4 min read
Illustration of a series of squares containing distinct patterns.

Can an emerging field called ‘neural systems understanding’ explain the brain?

This mashup of neuroscience, artificial intelligence and even linguistics and philosophy of mind aims to crack the deep question of what "understanding" is, however un-brain-like its models may be.

By George Musser
5 June 2024 | 21 min listen
A person sits in an experimental rig that examines eye movements.

Visual perception improves in the blink of an eye

Blinking—long considered a problem the brain must overcome to produce seamless vision—may actually be more of a feature than a bug, new research suggests.

By Angie Voyles Askham
10 May 2024 | 5 min read
Portrait of the interior designer Madeleine Castaing by the French painter Chaïm Soutine.

The creative brain—an edited excerpt from ‘Essays on Art and Science’

In his new book, neuroscientist Eric Kandel explores how sensory perception and higher-order cognitive processes influence our experience of art.

By Eric Kandel
19 March 2024 | 8 min read

Controversial dyslexia study marred by methodological and ethical problems, researchers say

Subsequent studies have also failed to validate a range of products based on the work.

By Brendan Borrell
27 February 2024 | 8 min read
An image of a fossil.

Expanding ‘little brain’ may have powered dinosaur flight

The cerebellum swelled in size before flight evolved among modern birds’ dinosaur ancestors, according to a new comparison of fossilized skulls and living birds.

By Annie Melchor
23 February 2024 | 5 min listen
Illustration of a yellow brain and a pink brain

Monkey studies throw wrench into decade-old idea about movement’s effect on visual cortex

Movements that boost activity in the visual cortex of mice have the opposite or no effect in marmosets and macaques, prompting questions about whether mice are a suitable model for the primate visual system.

By Angie Voyles Askham
20 February 2024 | 9 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Illustration of a funnel taking abstract shapes in at the top and spouting an organized flow of shapes out at the bottom.

To keep or not to keep: Neurophysiology’s data dilemma

An exponential growth in data size presents neuroscientists with a significant challenge: Should we be keeping all raw data or focusing on processed datasets? I asked experimentalists and theorists for their thoughts.

By Nima Dehghani
25 November 2024 | 5 min read
Piggy bank with half of its body replaced by a brain.

Neuroscientists reeling from past cuts advocate for more BRAIN Initiative funding

The director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health calls BRAIN a “high priority” but acknowledges that difficult decisions lie ahead if federal budgets remain flat.

By Angie Voyles Askham
22 November 2024 | 5 min read
A repeating pattern of orange butterflies against a blue background.

‘Huge influx’ of neuroscientists migrates to Bluesky

Daily neuroscience-related posts on the social-media platform this week have increased more than 400 percent, on average, compared with October.

By Calli McMurray
21 November 2024 | 5 min read