Audio research news

Remembering Barbara Finlay, 'maverick' of evolutionary neuroscience

Finlay, who died on 12 September, championed the idea that developmental constraints dictate how evolution sculpts brains, a concept she used to model the timing of hundr

What to do when traditional mechanistic approaches no longer work

Many complex behaviors have stubbornly resisted mechanistic explanations. Deciphering them will require new approaches—and perhaps a new concept of “understanding.”

How new technologies can bring primatologists and systems neuroscientists together

The two groups study the same behavioral phenomena yet rarely interact or read each other’s work—a mutual blind spot that weakens both fields. New technologies offer a ch

Creating community through grant support

Fiona Sanderson, a senior program manager at the Brain Canada Foundation, shares how she got into grant administration and how she helps connect researchers with funding

This paper changed my life: A first glimpse into the 'middle' of brain processing

Work by Jeffrey Moran and Robert Desimone showed that monkeys could focus their attention on different stimuli in their visual field without shifting their gaze. Their wo

The neural code at 100

In two 1926 articles, Edgar Douglas Adrian revealed that neurons communicate through trains of spikes.

What AI can learn from hunger

To enhance AI safety, take a lesson from biological brains; a small set of wants maintains durable control over a much larger cognitive system.

How the pipa frog hunts prey by touch

Each of the frog’s eight fingers branches into 16 ultra-sensitive tips, which together function as a fovea—potentially the first demonstration of this type of sensory str

Revisiting the neural correlates of consciousness

Life happens in real time, but experience may be composed in ragtime—like the music genre, full of offbeat notes and uneven rhythms. The assumption that waking life consi

Grant review needs reform. How about we add an element of chance?

A process that uses a lottery system saves time, reduces strategic resubmission and accepts that, above a quality threshold, luck has always played a part in science fund

This paper changed my life: Transformative work in addiction neuroscience

A 2011 Nature study found that loss of a nicotinic receptor subunit leads to increased nicotine intake in mice. The work set the standard for how to functionally validate

Building brain-computer interfaces at a neurotech company

At Blackrock Neurotech, Spencer Kellis develops implantable devices that help people with brain and spinal cord conditions communicate, move and more.

Infant memories: Lost but not gone?

Infantile amnesia is not simply a story about forgetting the past. It is an opportunity to understand how memory itself is built.

Neuromechanical models deepen our understanding of animal motor control

Thanks to recent progress in physics-based simulators and robotics, it has never been easier for neuroscientists to use neuromechanical modeling to test hypotheses about

Dimensionality-neuroscience's red herring?

Placing too much emphasis on a specific interpretation of dimensionality, or treating it as an end-all quantification of some aspect of neural computation, may hinder pro

Inside the sea cucumber's regenerative superpowers

José E. García-Arrarás studies how these marine invertebrates manage to regrow their nervous system, intestines and other internal organs in a matter of months after thre

How FALAN is building a thriving neuroscience community in Latin America

As the Federation of Latin American and Caribbean Neuroscience Societies Congress kicks off next week, its president shares how the organization aims to foster collaborat

How, when and why to use agentic AI in our neuroscience labs

With agentic AI’s rapid infiltration into science, researchers need to develop AI use policies and practices.

Climate neuroscience needs 'integration' and 'guided' research

Five years after a groundbreaking paper, can a young field move beyond piecemeal studies?

Brainstem neurons add new element to 'already complex' anxiety circuitry

Precise optogenetic modulation of a medullary neuron population reveals their role in anxiety-like behaviors.