Compositionality exists on a continuum of increasing complexity rather than as a binary trait. Studying its implementation in simpler biological and artificial systems is the most tractable path toward understanding its role in general intelligence.

This study shows that GPCR-based norepinephrine and dopamine sensors display crosstalk in several brain areas. Relative innervation densities determine the extent of crosstalk, and loss-of-function controls are required to interpret sensor signals.

Klimmt, Cardoso Gonçalves et al. developed a reproducible human three-dimensional brain tissue model with neurons, astrocytes and microglia, replicating in-vivo-like maturation and enabling the study of Alzheimer’s disease-relevant perturbations and drug responses.

The authors developed a new microscope that can measure and manipulate brain activity across multiple brain regions simultaneously with high precision, enabling scientists to study how spatially distributed brain circuits communicate and process information.

STARFISH, a method for visualizing endogenous mRNA translation, is used to show that tau is translated exclusively in neuronal dendrites and rapidly degraded by neuroproteasomes. Failure of this degradation leads to accumulation of tau aggregates.

The authors show that human neurons in bilateral corticolimbic sites fire together, modulated by working memory, and reinstate stimulus-selective firings when both sites briefly oscillate at 90 Hz, suggesting a mechanism for long-distance integration.

Using cerebroids, a 3D ex vivo model of the human fetal brain, the authors show that IL-17A, a mediator of maternal immune activation linked to neurodevelopmental disorders, disrupts early human cortical development through NF-κB signaling.

Endocannabinoid-dependent corticostriatal plasticity underlies avoidance learning in mice after a single experience. Disrupting this process impairs learning, revealing a nonclassical synaptic basis supporting one-shot learning.

A multimodal cell-type atlas of the mouse insular cortex reveals specialized pyramidal types and circuits in distinct insular subregions, as well as intra-insular functional connections that integrate sensory inputs with valence.

This study finds that shed NLGN3 interacts with the glycosylated surface protein CSPG4 on both normal and malignant glial cells, activating mechanotransduction pathways that drive glioma growth and maintain oligodendroglial progenitor states.

On 11 July 2026, neuroscience lost one of its most visionary scientists with the passing of Susumu Tonegawa at the age of 86. Across an extraordinary career spanning more than five decades, Tonegawa pursued biology’s deepest mysteries with relentless curiosity and unwavering conviction, inspiring generations of scientists to keep asking the hardest questions.