PODCAST · science
Audio research news
by The Transmitter
Your latest update from The Transmitter, an essential resource for the neuroscience community, dedicated to helping scientists at all career stages stay current and build connections. Read more: https://www.thetransmitter.org/
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300
'Slightly unhinged' federal autism meeting portends unclear research priorities
The meeting last week sparked concerns about the latest Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee’s ability to perform its core function: developing a strategy to support autism research.
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299
Microglia in hypothalamus help kick-start puberty
In a “surprise” role, the cells regulate the neurons that produce gonadotropin-releasing hormone.
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298
Gene activity in human cortex shows striking sex differences
The results mark a “dramatic shift” in how neuroscientists think about sex differences, and they may help explain sex biases in certain neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental conditions.
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297
Switching neural code may solve ongoing face-recognition debate
Face patch cells in macaque monkeys initially respond to images of any object but rapidly transition to attend to faces exclusively, a new study finds.
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296
Frameshift: How Mia Thomaidou tapped a fellowship to connect neuroscience to criminal justice
As a fellow at the Dana Foundation, she merged two familiar passions and discovered a new one: science philanthropy.
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295
To understand decision-making, we need to truly challenge lab animals
Complex, multidimensional tasks that unfold over time could reveal how different brain areas work together to support decisions.
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294
Nearly 400 compounds affect behaviors tied to autism-linked genes in zebrafish
Estropipate, paclitaxel and levocarnitine altered behaviors tied to SCN2A and DYRK1A variants specifically, a new open-source platform revealed.
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293
Arousal neurons' activity explains brain's blood flow dynamics in mice
The findings could influence how researchers interpret signals from techniques that use blood flow as a surrogate for neuronal activity.
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292
This paper changed my life: Erin Calipari ponders the nuances of rewarding and aversive stimuli
A 1960s study by Kelleher and Morse found that lever pressing in squirrel monkeys depended not on whether they received a reward or shock, but on the rules of the task. This taught Calipari to think deeply about factors that influence how behavior is generated and maintained.
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291
Why neural foundation models work, and what they might-and might not-teach us about the brain
These models can partly generalize across species, brain regions and tasks, suggesting that a set of machine-learnable rules govern neural population activity. But will we be able to understand them?
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290
Error equation predicts brain's ability to generalize
Four statistical measurements of neural network geometry capture how well brains and artificial networks use what they already know to solve new problems, a study suggests.
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289
Embrace complexity to improve the translatability of basic neuroscience
Researchers must learn to view heterogeneity as an essential feature of the systems they study and a central consideration in experimental design, not a variable to control for or reduce.
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288
Frameshift: How Caitlin Vander Weele made science communication her business
Her favorite part of research was talking about it. So she left academia and turned that passion into a successful company.
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287
Signs of aging vary across brain cells
Senescence presents differently depending on the cell type, toxic trigger and neighboring cells, two new studies find.
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286
Neuroscientists challenge NIH's proposed human-data access policy
The changes would restrict the sharing of human neuroimaging, transcriptomic and genetic data.
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285
Large-scale neuroimaging datasets often lack information specific to women's health, constraining AI's analysis potential
Addressing this gap will require collecting widespread data on pregnancy, menopause and other life events women experience—and could bring us closer to the “holy grail” of linking brain and behavior.
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284
Remembering Annette Dolphin, who helped explain gabapentin's effects
The “intuitive” neuropharmacologist pushed against the status quo.
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283
Revised statistical bar extracts less-common variants from autism genetics studies
Adjusting genetic analyses could help plug autism’s heritability gap, according to a new preprint.
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282
This paper changed my life: Talia Lerner reflects on dopamine neuron diversity and the value of simple experiments
In a 2011 Neuron study, Stephan Lammel and his colleagues showed that dopamine neurons with different projections have different physiological properties. The work inspired Lerner to think about how to challenge widely held assumptions in the field.
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281
Hippocampus builds reputation as 'general-purpose statistical learning machine'
New cross-species findings may help settle a long-standing debate about whether the hippocampus is required for passive learning.
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280
Securing the academic pipeline amid uncertain U.S. funding climate
Finding creative ways to keep early-career researchers in academia—for example, through part-time roles—can help the field weather the storm.
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279
Shifting neural code powers speech comprehension
Dynamic coding helps explain how the brain processes multiple features of speech—from the smallest units of sounds to full sentences—simultaneously.
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278
Astrocytes orchestrate oxytocin's social effects in mice
The cells amplify oxytocin—and may be responsible for sex differences in social behavior, two preprints find.
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277
Neuro's ark: Spying on the secret sensory world of ticks
Carola Städele, a self-proclaimed “tick magnet,” studies the arachnids’ sensory neurobiology—in other words, how these tiny parasites zero in on their next meal.
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276
Lack of reviewers threatens robustness of neuroscience literature
Simple math suggests that small groups of scientists can significantly bias peer review.
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275
Post-infection immune conflict alters fetal development in some male mice
The immune-conflict between dam and fetus could help explain sex differences in neurodevelopmental conditions.
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274
Is there a neuroscientist in the House?
Sam Wang, a neuroscientist running for the U.S. House of Representatives, has been considering American democracy for decades.
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273
Infant visual system categorizes common objects by 2 months of age
Brain activity patterns in the ventral visual cortex appear to distinguish images across 12 categories, including birds and trees, longitudinal functional MRI scans suggest.
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272
Frameshift: Raphe Bernier followed his heart out of academia, then made his way back again
After a clinical research career, an interlude at Apple and four months in early retirement, Raphe Bernier found joy in teaching.
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271
Organoid study reveals shared brain pathways across autism-linked variants
The genetic variants initially affect brain development in unique ways, but over time they converge on common molecular pathways.
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270
Neuroscience needs single-synapse studies
Studying individual synapses has the potential to help neuroscientists develop new theories, better understand brain disorders and reevaluate 70 years of work on synaptic transmission plasticity.
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269
Neuroscience has a species problem
If our field is serious about building general principles of brain function, cross-species dialogue must become a core organizing principle rather than an afterthought.
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268
Oligodendrocytes need mechanical cues to myelinate axons correctly
Without the mechanosensor TMEM63A, the cells cannot deposit the appropriate amount of insulation, according to a new study.
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267
Aging neurons outsource garbage disposal, clog microglia
Degradation-resistant proteins pass from neurons to glial cells in a process that may spread protein clumps around the brain, according to a study in mice.
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266
Oregon primate research center to negotiate with NIH on possible transition to sanctuary
The board of directors at Oregon Health & Science University, which runs the primate center, voted unanimously in favor of the move.
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265
From genes to dynamics: Examining brain cell types in action may reveal the logic of brain function
Defining brain cell types is no longer a matter of classification alone, but of embedding their genetic identities within the dynamical organization of population activity.
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264
Cerebellum responds to language like cortical areas
One of four language-responsive cerebellar regions may encode meaningful information, much like the cortical language network in the left hemisphere, according to a new study.
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263
Neuro's ark: Understanding fast foraging with star-nosed moles
“MacArthur genius” Kenneth Catania outlined the physiology behind the moles’ stellar foraging skills two decades ago. Next, he wants to better characterize their food-seeking behavior.
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262
Largest leucovorin-autism trial retracted
A reanalysis of the data revealed errors and failed to replicate the results.
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261
NIH scraps policy that classified basic research in people as clinical trials
The policy aimed to increase the transparency of research in humans but created “a bureaucratic nightmare” for basic neuroscientists.
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260
Cell atlas cracks open 'black box' of mammalian spinal cord development
The atlas details the genetics, birth dates and gene-expression signatures of roughly 150 neuron subtypes in the dorsal horn of the mouse spinal cord.
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259
Betting blind on AI and the scientific mind
If the struggle to articulate an idea is part of how you come to understand it, then tools that bypass that struggle might degrade your capacity for the kind of thinking that matters most for actual discovery.
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258
Viral remnant in chimpanzees silences brain gene humans still use
The retroviral insert appears to inadvertently switch off a gene involved in brain development.
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257
Why emotion research is stuck-and how to move it forward
Studying how organisms infer indirect threats and understand changing contexts can establish a common framework that bridges species and levels of analysis.
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256
How artificial agents can help us understand social recognition
Neuroscience is chasing the complexity of social behavior, yet we have not answered the simplest question in the chain: How does a brain know “who is who”? Emerging multi-agent artificial intelligence may help accelerate our understanding of this fundamental computation.
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255
Common and rare variants shape distinct genetic architecture of autism in African Americans
Certain gene variants may have greater weight in determining autism likelihood for some populations, a new study shows.
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254
Bringing African ancestry into cellular neuroscience
Two independent teams in Africa are developing stem cell lines and organoids from local populations to explore neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative conditions.
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253
Computational psychiatry needs systems neuroscience
Dissecting different parallel processing streams may help us understand the mechanisms underlying psychiatric symptoms, such as delusions, and unite human and animal research.
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252
This paper changed my life: John Tuthill reflects on the subjectivity of selfhood
Wittlinger, Wehner and Wolf’s 2006 “stilts and stumps” Science paper revealed how ants pull off extraordinary feats of navigation using a biological odometer, and it inspired Tuthill to consider how other insects sense their own bodies.
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251
Some facial expressions are less reflexive than previously thought
A countenance such as a grimace activates many of the same cortical pathways as voluntary facial movements.
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