Neurons in the brain are often many synapses away from motoneurons, yet if a movement results in error, each distant neuron needs a teacher that considers its specific contribution to production of th...

Why do animals as different as insects and mammals process smells in nearly the same way? A new theoretical study published in PNAS takes on this question by […]

Why do the smell circuits of flies, mice, and humans look so remarkably alike? A new study from Harvard researchers offers a possible explanation: this shared design may be the […]

The structure of brain connectivity predicts collective neural activity, with a small number of connectivity features determining activity dimensionality, linking circuit architecture to network-level...

How can we make sense of large-scale recordings of neural activity across learning? Theories of neural network learning with their origins in statistical phy...

The architecture of early olfactory processing is a striking example of convergent evolution. Typically, a panel of broadly tuned receptors is selectively expressed in sensory neurons (each neuron exp...

Animals actively sense their environment to extract features of interest to guide behaviors. For mammals, odors are prominent environmental features which are sampled by active modulation of sniffing ...

Individual dopaminergic neurons encode future rewards over distinct temporal horizons.

JTN - 2025

Odor cues in nature are sparse and highly fluctuating due to turbulent transport. To investigate how animals perceive these intermittent cues, we developed a behavioral task in which head-restrained m...

A major challenge in neuroscience is reconciling idealized theoretical models with complex, heterogeneous experimental data. We address this challenge through the lens of continuous-attractor networks...

CAMBRIDGE, MA —The Kempner Institute announced today the appointment of SueYeon Chung (PhD ‘17), who returns to Harvard as a Kempner Institute Investigator and faculty member in the Faculty of […]

Unlocking “universal smell” requires integrating key principles of natural olfactory systems: modulation of gas transport, utilization of non-selective sensing elements, chemical filters akin to the ...

A neocortical–entorhinal–hippocampal network model based on grid cell states recapitulates experimental results and reconciles the spatial, associative and episodic memory roles of the hippocampus.

Many seabirds have evolved to use wind to fly efficiently, but this constrains travel direction. Harris et al. show how flight costs vary with the wind in Manx shearwaters and measure the degree to wh...

The public needs context about unreviewed manuscripts, survey suggests