Audio research news
Episodes
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...
Learning in living mice defies classic synaptic plasticity rule
28 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Hebb’s theory—memorably summarized as “cells that fire together, wire together”—does not explain the shifting hippocampal connections...
Cephalopods, vision's next frontier
27 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For decades, scientists have been teased by the strange but inaccessible cephalopod visual system. Now, thanks to a technological breakthrough from a ...
Escaping groupthink: What animals' behavioral quirks reveal about the brain
23 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Neuroscientists have long ignored the variability in animals’ behavioral responses in favor of studying differences across groups. But work on the b...
Immune cells block pain in female mice only
22 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Regulatory T cells in the spinal meninges release endogenous opioids in a sex-specific manner, new work shows.
The BabyLM Challenge: In search of more efficient learning algorithms, researchers look to infants
19 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A competition that trains language models on relatively small datasets of words, closer in size to what a child hears up to age 13, seeks solutions to...
Reporter's notebook: Highlights from INSAR 2025
15 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The annual meeting brought autism researchers, advocates and clinicians to Seattle to discuss the latest research, including attempts to define subgro...
NIDA shutters diversity fellowship program, axes active awards
14 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s unclear if the cancellation at the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse extends to the fellowships awarded by other institutes within the Nati...
'We still exist': How four neuroscience advocacy groups are navigating federal DEI funding cuts
14 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Trainees from underrepresented backgrounds are losing pillars of support in the current funding climate. Grassroots mentorship organizations are stepp...
This paper changed my life: Marino Pagan recalls a decision-making study from four titans in the field
13 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Valerio Mante and David Sussillo, along with their mentors Krishna Shenoy and Bill Newsome, revealed the complexity of neural population dynamics and ...
Exclusive: Recruitment issues jeopardize ambitious plan for human brain atlas
09 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A lack of six new brain donors may stop the project from meeting its goal to pair molecular and cellular data with the functional organization of the ...
How pragmatism and passion drive Fred Volkmar-even after retirement
08 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Whether looking back at his career highlights or forward to his latest projects, the psychiatrist is committed to supporting autistic people at every ...
Sleep doesn't just consolidate memories; it actively shapes them
06 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The rapid eye movement (REM) phase preserves newly acquired memories, but deeper non-REM sleep helps to adapt and update them, according to “heroic”...
Thinking about thinking: AI offers theoretical insights into human memory
05 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We need a new conceptual framework for understanding cognitive functions—particularly how globally distributed brain states are formed and maintaine...
Mitochondrial 'landscape' shifts across human brain
25 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Evolutionarily newer regions sport mitochondria with a higher capacity for energy production than older regions, according to the first detailed map o...
This paper changed my life: Shane Liddelow on two papers that upended astrocyte research
23 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A game-changing cell culture method developed in Ben Barres’ lab completely transformed the way we study astrocytes and helped me build a career stu...
What birds can teach us about the 'biological truth' of sex
22 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Part of our job as educators is to give students a deeper understanding of the true diversity of sex and gender in the natural world.
Noninvasive technologies can map and target human brain with unprecedented precision
21 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
But to fully grasp the tools’ potential, we need to better understand how electric and magnetic fields interact with the brain.
During decision-making, brain shows multiple distinct subtypes of activity
18 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Person-to-person variability in brain activity might represent meaningful differences in cognitive processes, rather than random noise.
Smell studies often use unnaturally high odor concentrations, analysis reveals
16 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s time to fashion olfactory neuroscience stimuli based on odor concentrations in the wild, say study investigators Elizabeth Hong and Matt Wachow...
Functional MRI can do more than you think
14 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Recent technological advances provide a range of new and different information about brain physiology. But taking full advantage of these gains depend...
U.S. human data repositories 'under review' for gender identity descriptors
09 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Researchers associated with the repositories received an email from the U.S. National Institutes of Health in March noting that they must comply with ...
Inhibitory cells work in concert to orchestrate neuronal activity in mouse brain
09 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A cubic millimeter of brain tissue, meticulously sectioned, stained and scrutinized over the past seven years, reveals in stunning detail the role of ...
Exclusive: NIH nixes funds for several pre- and postdoctoral training programs
08 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Many of the axed grants support scientists from underrepresented communities.
To make a meaningful contribution to neuroscience, fMRI must break out of its silo
08 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We need to develop research programs that link phenomena across levels, from genes and molecules to cells, circuits, networks and behavior.
In vivo veritas: Xenotransplantation can help us study the development and function of human neurons in a living brain
07 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Transplanted cells offer insight into human-specific properties, such as a lengthy cortical development and sensitivity to neurodevelopmental and neur...
Keep sex as a biological variable: Don't let NIH upheaval turn back the clock on scientific rigor
25 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Even in the absence of any formal instruction to do so, we should continue to hold our ourselves and our neuroscience colleagues accountable for SABV ...
Single-neuron recordings are helping to unravel complexities of human cognition
14 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As this work begins to bear fruit, researchers “are becoming less afraid to ask very difficult questions that you can uniquely ask in people.”
U.S. BRAIN Initiative set to lose $81 million this year
11 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A government spending bill, which was approved today by the House of Representatives and heads next to a Senate vote, allocates 20 percent less fundin...
New tools help make neuroimaging accessible to more researchers
05 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A lack of programming experience can derail experimental aspirations. But custom software packages, web-based applications and video tutorials make fu...
About-faces in U.S. federal science funding put neuroscientists on edge
12 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
“It’s hard to know what’s real,” says neuroscientist Josh Dubnau after a dizzying week in which diversity-related grant applications were pull...
Age-related brain changes in mice strike hypothalamus 'hot spot'
16 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Neuronal and non-neuronal cells throughout the brain also express genes—particularly those related to neuronal structure and immune function—diffe...
Males and females show different patterns of risk for brain-based conditions. Ignoring these differences does us all a disservice.
18 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Although studying sex differences in the brain is complex, technically awkward and socioculturally loaded, it is absolutely essential.
Immune cell interlopers breach-and repair-brain barrier in mice
22 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The choroid plexus, the protective network of blood vessels and epithelial cells that line the brain’s ventricles, recruits neutrophils and macropha...
NeuroAI: A field born from the symbiosis between neuroscience, AI
15 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As the history of this nascent discipline reveals, neuroscience has inspired advances in artificial intelligence, and AI has provided a testing ground...
Timing tweak turns trashed fMRI scans into treasure
30 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Leveraging start-up “dummy scans,” which are typically discarded in imaging analyses, can shorten an experiment’s length and make data collectio...
Brains, biases and amyloid beta: Why the female brain deserves a closer look in Alzheimer's research
25 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
New results suggest the disease progresses differently in women, but we need more basic science to unpack the mechanisms involved.
This paper changed my life: 'Spontaneous cortical activity reveals hallmarks of an optimal internal model of the environment,' from the Fiser Lab
18 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Fiser’s work taught me how to think about grounding computational models in biologically plausible implementations.
The S-index Challenge: Develop a metric to quantify data-sharing success
10 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The NIH-sponsored effort aims to help incentivize scientists to share data. But many barriers to the widespread adoption of useful data-sharing remain...
A scientific fraud. An investigation. A lab in recovery.
08 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Science is built on trust. What happens when someone destroys it?
Repeat scans reveal brain changes that precede childbirth
01 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A detailed look at a “pregnant brain” highlights a need to investigate the neural alterations that occur during a transition experienced by nearly...
Reconstructing dopamine's link to reward
25 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The field is grappling with whether to modify the long-standing theory of reward prediction error—or abandon it entirely.
In updated U.S. autism bill, Congress calls for funding boost, expanded scope
10 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The current Autism CARES Act sunsets in late September.
From reductionism to dynamical systems: How two books influenced my thinking across 30 years of neuroscience
29 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Nicole Rust describes her career-changing literary journey of joy, free will and the evolution of a field.
Neuroscience needs a career path for software engineers
20 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Few institutions have mechanisms for the type of long-term positions that would best benefit the science.
Nonsense correlations and how to avoid them
15 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This statistical error is common in systems neuroscience. Fortunately, straightforward methods can help you prevent it.
Is it time to worry about brain chimeras?
08 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Brains made of neurons from two species raise new concerns.
Martin Giurfa's concept of home
01 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The insect-cognition researcher has done his work across continents, but Argentina is never far from his mind.