The Transmitter

09/05/2025

In this Big Picture debate, Nicole Rust explores the controversy around the terminology used to characterize emotions—and invites 13 experts to chime in.

In 2025, the words we use to describe emotions matter, but their definitions are controversial. Here, I unpack the different positions in this space and the rationales behind them—and I invite 13…

09/04/2025

How is it that the same genes can influence the likelihood of multiple neuropsychiatric conditions?

By Natalia Mesa

By contrast, varied doses of the same genes decrease or increase the odds of five other conditions, with distinct biological consequences, two new preprints show.

09/03/2025

The mouse brain lights up during decision making, showing widespread activity across both predictable as well as unexpected areas.

By Claudia López Lloreda

The findings, gleaned from the most comprehensive map yet of brain activity during decision-making in mice, show that the process is even more distributed than previously thought.

09/03/2025

Astrocytes are connected by gap junctions in large, plastic networks that link brain regions not connected by neurons, a new preprint shows.

By Calli McMurray

The networks are plastic, connect brain regions that aren’t connected by neurons and may enable long-distance communication between astrocytes, a new preprint shows.

09/02/2025

“Competent prose generated by a machine, I’ve come to realize, might not be what science actually needs.” ?

By Tim Requarth

Efficiency isn’t everything. The cognitive work of struggling with prose may be a crucial part of what drives scientific progress.

09/01/2025

Neurociencias Para Todos brings neuroscience education to remote communities in Mexico. Ashley Juavinett talked with founder Monica López-Hidalgo about the program’s efforts and the importance of making neuroscience accessible to all.

08/29/2025

New findings help to explain why it has been so challenging to predict brain signaling from the connectome alone.

By Holly Barker

The synaptic connectome of most animals bears little resemblance to functional brain maps, but it can still predict neuronal activity, according to two preprints that tackle the puzzle in C. elegans.

08/28/2025

Microglia nurture young GABAergic interneurons by secreting IGF-1, a new study shows.

By Lauren Schenkman

The immune cells secrete a growth factor that “sets the supply of GABAergic interneurons in the developing brain.”…

08/27/2025

In the latest episode of Brain Inspired, Xaq Pitkow discusses how evolution's messy constraints shape optimal brain algorithms, from Bayesian inference to ecological affordances.

Pitkow discusses how evolution's messy constraints shape optimal brain algorithms, from Bayesian inference to ecological affordances.

08/27/2025

In The Transmitter’s reading list, we highlight the most anticipated upcoming neuroscience books and other notable 2025 releases. Featuring titles by Steve Ramirez, Ben Rein, Nicole Rust, Xiao-Jing Wang and many more.

By ‪Francisco J. Rivera Rosario

Dig into an exploration of the fundamental aspects of intelligence, a new textbook about theoretical neuroscience and a memoir about memory research, among other new releases.

08/26/2025

In the 1990s, neuroscientists often complained “that theorists were completely out of touch with experimental data,” says Anthony Zador. Today, in part thanks to the Sloan-Swartz Centers, “I very rarely hear that.”

By Calli McMurray

Funding from the Swartz and Sloan Foundations helped bring physicists and mathematicians into neuroscience for more than 30 years.

08/25/2025

With LLMs, researchers can develop software entirely through natural language conversations. This shift is transforming how research gets done, offering new opportunities and new challenges, writes ‪Benjamin Dichter.

Researchers are developing software entirely through natural language conversations with advanced large language models. The trend is transforming how research gets done—but it also presents new…