In this study, Luppi et al. systematically characterized and modeled more than 6,000 features of neural activity during anesthesia. They reveal a shared but reversible dynamical endpoint of anesthesia across six species, from human to worm.

A large-scale functional screen identified noncoding variants that regulate gene activity during human brain development, providing insights into the molecular mechanisms that shape differences in human cortical structure.

The authors show that reciprocal interactions between cortical areas generate slow dynamics that gradually build consensus across distributed cortical networks, revealing a potential general principle for coordinating activity across the neocortex.

This study shows that the brain arises from two distinct progenitors: one forms the forebrain and midbrain, whereas the other generates the hindbrain. These insights enable the generation of human hindbrain motor neurons from pluripotent stem cells.

This study shows that aging and Alzheimer’s disease reshape brain connectivity along distinct axes of brain organization, providing distinguishing neural signatures for health and pathological brain aging.

Researchers engineered a human stem cell-derived model that recapitulates myelin damage and repair in the central nervous system, enabling the study of remyelination and drug screening for multiple sclerosis.

Faini et al. develop CLOK, a method that labels neurons across a spectrum of colors according to when they were born, allowing successive generations of brain cells to be tracked as they take shape in living zebrafish.

Franch et al. show that human hippocampal neurons encode the meanings of the words we hear through distributed, context-sensitive population activity that mirrors some features of large language models.

In this study, Luppi et al. systematically characterized and modeled more than 6,000 features of neural activity during anesthesia. They reveal a shared but reversible dynamical endpoint of anesthesia across six species, from human to worm.

Using high-density electrocorticography, Zhao et al. reveal shared frontoparietal planning and modality-specific sensorimotor codes for imagined and spoken speech, enabling robust decoding of internal articulatory dynamics.

As part of our special issue on Neurotechnology, we spoke with Sergey Stavisky, Associate Professor at the University of California, Davis, about the breakthroughs that have transformed speech neuroprostheses from proof-of-concept demonstrations into practical communication systems. He reflects on the scientific surprises, engineering challenges and ethical questions that are shaping the future of neural interfaces.

As part of our special issue on neurotechnology, we spoke with Miguel Nicolelis, Professor Emeritus at Duke University and founder of the Edmond and Lily Safra International Neuroscience Institute, about the bold ideas that have defined his career, from helping to pioneer brain–machine interfaces to establishing a neuroscience institute in northeastern Brazil with the goal of driving social transformation. He considers the scientific discoveries, technological hurdles and ethical questions that continue to shape the future of neural interfaces and neurorehabilitation.

As part of our special issue on neurotechnology, we spoke with Richard Andersen, James G. Boswell Professor of Neuroscience at Caltech, about the discoveries that helped to establish the posterior parietal cortex as a key hub for intention and action planning. He looks back on decades of discoveries in the posterior parietal cortex and discusses how advances in neural recording, decoding and computation are reshaping our understanding of cognition.