Audio research news
Episodes
Remembering Adam Kampff, neuroscience educator and researcher
24 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kampff’s do-it-yourself approach inspired a generation of neuroscientists.
'Unprecedented' dorsal root ganglion atlas captures 22 types of human sensory neurons
23 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The atlas also offers up molecular and cellular targets for new pain therapies.
Not playing around: Why neuroscience needs toy models
22 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Amid the rise of billion-parameter models, I argue that toy models, with just a few neurons, remain essential—and may be all neuroscience needs.
Psychedelics research in rodents has a behavior problem
19 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Simple behavioral assays—originally validated as drug-screening tools—fall short in studies that aim to unpack the psychedelic mechanism of action...
New organoid atlas unveils four neurodevelopmental signatures
17 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The comprehensive resource details data on microcephaly, polymicrogyria, epilepsy and intellectual disability from 352 people.
AI-assisted coding: 10 simple rules to maintain scientific rigor
16 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
These guidelines can help researchers ensure the integrity of their work while accelerating progress on important scientific questions.
How basic neuroscience has paved the path to new drugs
15 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A growing list of medications—such as zuranolone for postpartum depression, suzetrigine for pain, and the gepants class of migraine medicines—exis...
Waves of calcium activity dictate eye structure in flies
12 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Synchronized signals in non-neuronal retinal cells draw the tiny compartments of a fruit fly’s compound eye into alignment during pupal development....
What is the future of organoid and assembloid regulation?
10 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Four experts weigh in on how to establish ethical guardrails for research on the 3D neuron clusters as these models become ever more complex.
Seeing the world as animals do: How to leverage generative AI for ecological neuroscience
08 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Generative artificial intelligence will offer a new way to see, simulate and hypothesize about how animals experience their worlds. In doing so, it co...
Exclusive: Springer Nature retracts, removes nearly 40 publications that trained neural networks on 'bonkers' dataset
08 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The dataset contains images of children’s faces downloaded from websites about autism, which sparked concerns at Springer Nature about consent and r...
Psilocybin rewires specific mouse cortical networks in lasting ways
05 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Neuronal activity induced by the psychedelic drug strengthens inputs from sensory brain areas and weakens cortico-cortical recurrent loops.
Beyond the algorithmic oracle: Rethinking machine learning in behavioral neuroscience
03 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Machine learning should not be a replacement for human judgment but rather help us embrace the various assumptions and interpretations that shape beha...
This paper changed my life: Nancy Padilla-Coreano on learning the value of population coding
01 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The 2013 Nature paper by Mattia Rigotti and his colleagues revealed how mixed selectivity neurons—cells that are not selectively tuned to a stimulus...
Noninvasive method lifts curtain on cerebrospinal-fluid dance in human brain
14 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Cerebrospinal fluid shows brain-region-specific dynamics, a new high-resolution MRI approach reveals.
Aging as adaptation: Learning the brain's recipe for resilience
14 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Some age-related changes in the brain and in behavior are not solely the result of cognitive decline but rather part of a larger adaptive process.
Perimenopause: An important-and understudied-transition for the brain
12 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Many well-known perimenopause symptoms arise in the brain, but we still know little about the specific mechanisms at play. More research—in both ani...
Without monkeys, neuroscience has no future
10 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Research in primate brains has been essential for the development of brain-computer interfaces and artificial neural networks. New funding and policy ...
Our searchable repository of useful research can restore trust in federally funded basic science
05 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Called U.S. Public Research Benefits, the database showcases the value of basic science in an easy and accessible format.
How neuroscientists are using AI
04 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Eight researchers explain how they are using large language models to analyze the literature, brainstorm hypotheses and interact with complex datasets...
Neuroscience needs engineers-for more reasons than you think
03 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Adopting an engineering mindset will help the field focus its research priorities.
Ramping up cortical activity in early life sparks autism-like behaviors in mice
30 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The findings add fuel to the long-running debate over how an imbalance in excitatory and inhibitory signaling contributes to the autism.
First Pan-African neuroscience journal gets ready to launch
28 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With lower-than-average article processing fees, and issues dedicated to topics important to the continent, the journal hopes to give African neurosci...
The missing half of the neurodynamical systems theory
27 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bifurcations—an underexplored concept in neuroscience—can help explain how small differences in neural circuits give rise to entirely novel functi...
Remembering GABA pioneer Edward Kravitz
24 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The biochemist, who died last month at age 92, was part of the first neurobiology department in the world and showed that gamma-aminobutyric acid is i...
Protein tug-of-war controls pace of synaptic development, sets human brains apart
23 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Human-specific duplicates of SRGAP2 prolong cortical development by manipulating SYNGAP, an autism-linked protein that slows synaptic growth.
Neurons tune electron transport chain to survive onslaught of noxious stimuli
22 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Nociceptors tamp down the production of reactive oxygen species in response to heat, chemical irritants or toxins.
This paper changed my life: Sandra Jurado marvels at the first-ever 3D model of a synaptic vesicle
21 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this 2006 Cell paper, Shigeo Takamori and his colleagues showcased the molecular machinery of synaptic vesicles in outstanding detail. Their work t...
Diving in with Nachum Ulanovsky
16 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With an eye toward realism, the neuroscientist, who has a new study about bats out today, creates microcosms of the natural world to understand animal...
Gene-activity map of developing brain reveals new clues about autism's sex bias
16 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Boys and girls may be vulnerable to different genetic changes, which could help explain why the condition is more common in boys despite linked varian...
Engrams in amygdala lean on astrocytes to solidify memories
15 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Disrupting the astrocyte-neuronal dynamic in mice destabilizes their memory of fear conditioning.
Ant olfactory neurons reveal new 'transcriptional shield' mechanism of gene regulation
14 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A protective screen of spurious transcriptional activity enables each olfactory neuron to express exactly one out of hundreds of olfactory receptors.
New questions around motor neurons and plasticity
10 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A researcher’s theory hangs muscle degeneration on a broken neural circuit.
One year of FlyWire: How the resource is redefining Drosophila research
07 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We asked nine neuroscientists how they are using FlyWire data in their labs, how the connectome has transformed the field and what new tools they woul...
Neurons fuel lung tumors that have spread to brain
06 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Functional synapses between brain cells and cancer cells are key to the metastatic growth, according to new findings from two independent teams.
Why we need basic science to better understand the neurobiology of psychedelics
01 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Despite the many psychedelics clinical trials underway, there is still much we don’t know about how these drugs work. Preclinical studies represent ...
Reproducibility is a team sport: Lessons from a large-scale collaboration
29 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Building reproducible systems across labs is possible, even in large-scale neuroscience projects. You just need rigor, collaboration and the willingne...
Local circuit loops within body control fly behavior, new 'embodied' connectome reveals
24 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The mapping, which traces how the central nervous system interacts with the rest of the body, challenges the idea that behavior control is centralized...
Autism experts question HHS statements on Tylenol, leucovorin
22 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Concerns include the administration’s reliance on weak, correlational evidence rather than established research.
Beyond Newtonian causation in neuroscience: Embracing complex causality
22 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The traditional mechanistic framework must give way to a richer understanding of how brains actually generate behavior over time.
This paper changed my life: Dan Goodman on a paper that reignited the field of spiking neural networks
17 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friedemann Zenke’s 2019 paper, and its related coding tutorial SpyTorch, made it possible to apply modern machine learning to spiking neural network...
First nerve-net connectome shows how evolutionarily ancient nervous system coordinates movement
16 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The map of a comb jelly’s aboral nerve net, which helps the animal orient and position itself within the water column, reveals a unique system for s...
Paper by memory institute director garners expression of concern over image integrity
16 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The notice, posted last week in Nature, follows a recent string of corrections to at least three other articles by Li-Huei Tsai’s lab.
International scientific collaboration is more necessary-yet more challenging-than ever
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
These partnerships accelerate neuroscience by enabling researchers to share resources and expertise, as well as generate more relevant and reproducibl...
Sensory gatekeeper drives seizures, autism-like behaviors in mouse model
11 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The new work, in mice missing the autism-linked gene CNTNAP2, suggests a mechanism to help explain the overlap between epilepsy and autism.
Mitochondria set 'ancient' metabolic thermostat for sleep in flies, separate from circadian rhythms
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
During waking hours, a specialized set of sleep neurons in the fly brain accumulates reactive oxygen species, which eventually trigger sleep to clean ...
Building the future of neuroscience at HBCUs
08 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Black In Neuro is launching a new program to help historically Black colleges and universities advance neuroscience research and education, focusing o...
Emotion research has a communication conundrum
05 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2025, the words we use to describe emotions matter, but their definitions are controversial. Here, I unpack the different positions in this space a...
Autism-linked copy number variants always boost autism likelihood
04 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
By contrast, varied doses of the same genes decrease or increase the odds of five other conditions, with distinct biological consequences, two new pre...
Astrocyte networks span large swaths of brain
03 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The networks are plastic, connect brain regions that aren’t connected by neurons and may enable long-distance communication between astrocytes, a ne...
From bench to bot: Why AI-powered writing may not deliver on its promise
02 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Efficiency isn’t everything. The cognitive work of struggling with prose may be a crucial part of what drives scientific progress.
Worms help untangle brain structure/function mystery
29 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The synaptic connectome of most animals bears little resemblance to functional brain maps, but it can still predict neuronal activity, according...
The Transmitter's reading list: Six upcoming neuroscience books, plus notable titles in 2025
27 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Dig into an exploration of the fundamental aspects of intelligence, a new textbook about theoretical neuroscience and a memoir about memory research, ...
Long-standing theoretical neuroscience fellowship program loses financial support
26 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Funding from the Swartz and Sloan Foundations helped bring physicists and mathematicians into neuroscience for more than 30 years.
Should neuroscientists 'vibe code'?
25 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Researchers are developing software entirely through natural language conversations with advanced large language models. The trend is transforming how...
Adult human cortex does not 'reorganize' after amputation
21 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The results from a new longitudinal study contradict classic findings in monkeys but may not warrant a rewriting of the textbooks just yet.
Longer fMRI brain scans boost reliability-but only to a point
20 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Around 30 minutes of imaging per person seems to be the “sweet spot” for linking functional connectivity differences to traits in an accurate and ...
Hitting city streets to record rat behaviors: Q&A with Emily Mackevicius, Ralph Peterson
19 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Capturing the rodents’ vocalizations and movements in the wild offers an opportunity to study naturalistic behaviors in a complex urban environment,...
Deleting data or stopping its collection will erase years of valuable brain research
18 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
An explosion in open-neuroscience datasets has created a new generation of researchers with expertise in data science. But new federal restrictions in...
The spectrum goes multidimensional in search of autism subtypes
14 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Grouping people with autism based on shared features, genetics and co-occurring conditions may improve clinical trial outcomes, researchers say.
Exclusive: Harvard University lays off fly database team
13 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The layoffs jeopardize this resource, which has served more than 4,000 labs for about three decades.
This paper changed my life: Abigail Person on birdsong, feed-forward circuits and convergent computations
12 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
By isolating specific neuron types involved in zebra finch birdsong, this 2002 Nature paper from Michael Fee and colleagues revealed elegant neural me...
The challenge of defining a neural population
11 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Our current approach is largely arbitrary. We need new methods for grouping cells, ideally by their dynamics.
Oxytocin prompts prairie voles to oust outsiders, fortifying their friendships
08 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The “love hormone” drives the neurobiology behind platonic bonds in animals usually studied for their romantic attachments.
Contested paper on vaccines, autism in rats retracted by journal
07 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The editor-in-chief cited “inconsistencies in the number of subjects” as the reason for the retraction.
Body state, sensory signals commingle in mouse whisker cortex
06 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The new study challenges a long-held view that the barrel cortex exclusively encodes sensory signals from the whiskers.
Neural population-based approaches have opened new windows into neural computations and behavior
04 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Neural manifold properties can help us understand how animal brains deal with complex information, execute flexible behaviors and reuse common computa...
Poor image quality introduces systematic bias into large neuroimaging datasets
31 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Analyses that include low-quality MRI data underestimate cortical thickness and overestimate cortical surface area, according to new findings from the...
Eye puffs prompt separable sensory, affective brain responses in mice, people
29 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Post-puff brain state might not be an emotion, some researchers caution, but the protocol provides a cross-species approach to study emotions.
What U.S. science stands to lose without international graduate students and postdoctoral researchers
28 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Neuroscience in other countries will strengthen—at the United States’ expense—as rising visa restrictions and rejections block many internationa...
New dopamine sensor powers three-color imaging in live animals
25 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The tool leverages a previously unused segment of the color spectrum to track the neurotransmitter and can be used with two additional sensors to moni...
Cell 'antennae' link autism, congenital heart disease
24 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Variants in genes tied to both conditions derail the formation of cilia, the tiny hair-like structure found on almost every cell in the body, a new st...
How to build a truly global computational neuroscience community
23 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Computational sciences offer an opportunity to increase global access to, and participation in, neuroscience. Neuromatch’s inclusive, scalable model...
This paper changed my life: Victoria Abraira on a tasty link between circuits and behavior
22 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The findings from Charles Zuker’s lab put the taste system on the map, revealing that some fundamental principles of behavior are hardwired.
Breaking the jar: Why NeuroAI needs embodiment
21 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Brain function is inexorably shaped by the body. Embracing this fact will benefit computational models of real brain function, as well as the design o...
Four autism subtypes map onto distinct genes, traits
17 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
An analysis of more than 5,000 autistic children and their siblings underscores the idea that autism can be understood as multiple conditions with dis...
Systems and circuit neuroscience need an evolutionary perspective
16 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
To identify fundamental neuroscientific principles that generalize across species, neuroscientists must frame their research through an evolutionary l...
NIH proposal sows concerns over future of animal research, unnecessary costs
15 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The new NIH policy calls for greater incorporation of new approach methodologies in all future Notices of Funding Opportunities related to animal mode...
Fear and loathing on study section: Reviewing grant proposals while the system is burning
14 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As grants are canceled, delayed and subject to general uncertainty, participating in study sections can feel futile. But it’s more important than ev...
Neuropeptides reprogram social roles in leafcutter ants
11 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The mechanisms that control the labor roles of ants may also be conserved in naked mole rats, a new study shows.
Nature retracts paper on novel brain cell type against authors' wishes
09 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A 2022 paper was retracted after an independent team of researchers reanalyzed the data and questioned its validity.
Drosophila, like vertebrates, filter sensory information during sleep
08 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Predictive sensory processing in sleeping <em>Drosophila</em> echoes vertebrate research, establishing an evolutionarily conserved neural ...
Neuroscience's open-data revolution is just getting started
07 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Data reuse represents an opportunity to accelerate the pace of science, reduce costs and increase the value of our collective research investments. Ne...
Machine learning spots neural progenitors in adult human brains
03 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
But the finding has not settled the long-standing debate over the existence and extent of neurogenesis during adulthood, says Yale University neurosci...
Astrocytes sense neuromodulators to orchestrate neuronal activity and shape behavior
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Astrocytes serve as crucial mediators of neuromodulatory processes previously attributed to direct communication between neurons, four new studies sho...
Spatial learning circuitry fluctuates in step with estrous cycle in mice
25 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Cyclic shifts in estradiol levels coincide with changes in dendritic spine density and the activity of place cells in the CA1 region of the hippocampu...
Expanded view of hippocampal function comes into focus
24 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After decades of debate, the region’s role is being rewritten. Rather than using sensory input to simply log key points in time and space, the hippo...
Many students want to learn to use artificial intelligence responsibly. But their professors are struggling to meet that need.
23 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Effectively teaching students how to employ AI in their writing assignments requires clear guidelines—and detailed, case-specific examples.
The big idea with Diego Bohórquez
20 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
His theories around the neuropod have challenged the boundaries of classic ideas regarding gut-brain communication.
Genetic background steers PTEN syndrome traits
19 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
People with the syndrome, caused by variants in the gene PTEN, often have autism or cancer, or both, but it depends on the genetic diversity encoded i...
Star-responsive neurons steer moths' long-distance migration
18 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Cells in the bogong moth brain respond to astral landmarks to orient the insects in the direction they need to go.
This paper changed my life: Bradley Dickerson on how a 1940s fly neuroanatomy paper influences his research to this day
17 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This classic paper by zoologist John Pringle describes the haltere—a small structure in flies that plays a crucial role in flight control. It taught...
Gazing at a location from afar activates place cells in chickadees
13 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The results help explain how the hippocampus can recall information about a place without an animal physically revisiting it.
Some dopamine neurons signal default behaviors to reinforce habits
11 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Movement-sensing neurons that target the striatum influence a mouse’s choice of action by favoring routine.
On the importance of reading (just not too much)
09 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The real fun of being a neuroscientist, and maybe the key to asking and answering new questions, is to think big and take intellectual risks.
How developing neurons simplify their search for a synaptic mate
06 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamlining the problem from 3D to 1D eases the expedition—a strategy the study investigators deployed to rewire an olfactory circuit in flies.
'Understudied secret' in brain dampens nicotine drive in mice
04 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The interpeduncular nucleus produces an aversion to nicotine, even at low doses, and helps moderate how rewarding mice find the drug.
Rethinking how neural activity sculpts critical periods
03 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
New findings on the role of neural activity in developing circuits are challenging our prior notions about the rules that govern critical periods.
To understand the brain as a network organ, we must image cortical layers
02 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Human neuroscience research has largely overlooked this spatial scale—which bridges cells and brain areas. But new advances in functional MRI techno...
Amina Abubakar translates autism research and care for Kenya
29 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
First an educator and now an internationally recognized researcher, the Kenyan psychologist is changing autism science and services in sub-Saharan Afr...