Spectrum Autism Research

During waking hours, a specialized set of sleep neurons in the fly brain accumulates reactive oxygen species, which eventually trigger sleep to clean up and repair the damage they do.

Black In Neuro is launching a new program to help historically Black colleges and universities advance neuroscience research and education, focusing on cross-institutional collaboration, joint curriculum development and improved mentoring initiatives.

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 experts to chime in.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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 challenges for evaluating the outcomes.

The results from a new longitudinal study contradict classic findings in monkeys but may not warrant a rewriting of the textbooks just yet.

Around 30 minutes of imaging per person seems to be the “sweet spot” for linking functional connectivity differences to traits in an accurate and cost-effective way.

Capturing the rodents' vocalizations and movements in the wild offers an opportunity to study naturalistic behaviors in a complex urban environment, Mackevicius and Peterson say.

An explosion in open-neuroscience datasets has created a new generation of researchers with expertise in data science. But new federal restrictions in the United States put their research programs in jeopardy.

Grouping people with autism based on shared features, genetics and co-occurring conditions may improve clinical trial outcomes, researchers say.

The layoffs jeopardize this resource, which has served more than 4,000 labs for about three decades.

By isolating specific neuron types involved in zebra finch birdsong, this 2002 Nature paper from Michael Fee and colleagues revealed elegant neural mechanisms controlling the timing of natural learned behavior.

Our current approach is largely arbitrary. We need new methods for grouping cells, ideally by their dynamics.

The “love hormone” drives the neurobiology behind platonic bonds in animals usually studied for their romantic attachments.

The editor-in-chief cited “inconsistencies in the number of subjects” as the reason for the retraction.

The new study challenges a long-held view that the barrel cortex exclusively encodes sensory signals from the whiskers.

Neural manifold properties can help us understand how animal brains deal with complex information, execute flexible behaviors and reuse common computations.

Analyses that include low-quality MRI data underestimate cortical thickness and overestimate cortical surface area, according to new findings from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study.

Post-puff brain state might not be an emotion, some researchers caution, but the protocol provides a cross-species approach to study emotions.

Neuroscience in other countries will strengthen—at the United States' expense—as rising visa restrictions and rejections block many international students from enrolling at U.S. institutions and dissuade others from applying.

The tool leverages a previously unused segment of the color spectrum to track the neurotransmitter and can be used with two additional sensors to monitor other neurochemicals at different wavelengths.

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 study finds.

Computational sciences offer an opportunity to increase global access to, and participation in, neuroscience. Neuromatch's inclusive, scalable model for community building shows how to realize this promise.

The findings from Charles Zuker's lab put the taste system on the map, revealing that some fundamental principles of behavior are hardwired.

Brain function is inexorably shaped by the body. Embracing this fact will benefit computational models of real brain function, as well as the design of artificial neural networks.

An analysis of more than 5,000 autistic children and their siblings underscores the idea that autism can be understood as multiple conditions with distinct trajectories.

To identify fundamental neuroscientific principles that generalize across species, neuroscientists must frame their research through an evolutionary lens.

The new NIH policy calls for greater incorporation of new approach methodologies in all future Notices of Funding Opportunities related to animal model systems.

As grants are canceled, delayed and subject to general uncertainty, participating in study sections can feel futile. But it's more important than ever.

The mechanisms that control the labor roles of ants may also be conserved in naked mole rats, a new study shows.

A 2022 paper was retracted after an independent team of researchers reanalyzed the data and questioned its validity.

Predictive sensory processing in sleeping Drosophila echoes vertebrate research, establishing an evolutionarily conserved neural signature of sleep.

Data reuse represents an opportunity to accelerate the pace of science, reduce costs and increase the value of our collective research investments. New tools that make open data easier to use—and new pressures, including funding cuts—may increase uptake.

But the finding has not settled the long-standing debate over the existence and extent of neurogenesis during adulthood, says Yale University neuroscientist Juan Arellano.

Astrocytes serve as crucial mediators of neuromodulatory processes previously attributed to direct communication between neurons, four new studies show.

Cyclic shifts in estradiol levels coincide with changes in dendritic spine density and the activity of place cells in the CA1 region of the hippocampus, a new study shows.

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 hippocampus may serve to contextualize our experiences and memories—and ultimately make predictions about the future.

Effectively teaching students how to employ AI in their writing assignments requires clear guidelines—and detailed, case-specific examples.

His theories around the neuropod have challenged the boundaries of classic ideas regarding gut-brain communication.

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 in the components of distinct cell signaling pathways, according to a new study.

Cells in the bogong moth brain respond to astral landmarks to orient the insects in the direction they need to go.

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 me to think about circuits and behavior as greater than the sum of their parts.

The results help explain how the hippocampus can recall information about a place without an animal physically revisiting it.

Movement-sensing neurons that target the striatum influence a mouse's choice of action by favoring routine.

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.

Streamlining the problem from 3D to 1D eases the expedition—a strategy the study investigators deployed to rewire an olfactory circuit in flies.