Ben Scott

1 month ago | thetransmitter.org | Mark Humphries |Grace Lindsay |Ben Scott |Anthony M. Zador

There are many ways neuroscience could end. Prosaically, society may just lose interest. Of all the ways we can use our finite resources, studying the brain has only recently become one; it may one day return to dust. Other things may take precedence, like feeding the planet or preventing an asteroid strike. Or neuroscience may end as an incidental byproduct, one of the consequences of war or of thoughtlessly disassembling a government or of being sideswiped by a chunk of space rock.

2 months ago | thetransmitter.org | Grace Lindsay |Mark Humphries |Ben Scott |Matthew G. Perich

From focused ultrasound to nonhuman primate optogenetics, the tools for controlling neural activity are growing rapidly. It is common for neuroscientists, when given the means to perturb components of the nervous system, to make claims about which of these components are either necessary or sufficient for different functions. To prove necessity, neuroscientists inactivate the component and show that the function fails to manifest.

Dec 2, 2024 | thetransmitter.org | Mark Humphries |Ben Scott |Anne West |Paul Middlebrooks

Imagine the ultimate systems neuroscience paper. What it looks like could tell us much about where neuroscience, and how we communicate it, is going. Extrapolating from the evolution of systems neuroscience over the past century, we might envisage something like this:It begins by reporting the activity of every neuron in the brain of a human across their lifespan, from birth to death.

Jul 8, 2024 | thetransmitter.org | Tyler Sloan |Ben Scott |Shaena Montanari |Charles Choi

Data scientistQuorumetrix Share this article: Tags: Connectome, Drosophila, Methods, Microscopy, Neuroanatomy If I ask you to picture a group of “neurons firing,” what comes to mind? For most people, it’s a few isolated neurons flashing in synchrony. This type of minimalist representation of neurons is common within neuroscience, inspired in part by Santiago Ramón y Cajal’s elegant depictions of the nervous system.

Jul 4, 2024 | thetransmitter.org | Daisy Yuhas |Jill Adams |Angie Voyles Askham |Ben Scott

Contributing editorSpectrum Share this article: Tags: Spectrum, Cancer, FMR1, Fragile X syndrome, Repetitive behaviors, Sensory perception, Social difficulties July is Fragile X Awareness Month, and in this roundup we highlight some of our coverage of the condition. Fragile X syndrome is one of the most common forms of intellectual disability—and a leading genetic cause of autism. It is linked to variants in the gene FMR1.