🧠 Category

neuroscience

1315 papers

Neuroscience explores the intricate machinery of the brain and nervous system, seeking to understand how we think, feel, and move. From the microscopic dance of individual neurons to the complex networks that shape our memories and behaviors, this field peels back the layers of our biological selves to reveal the origins of consciousness and disease.

At Gist.Science, we bring these discoveries directly from bioRxiv, the leading preprint server for biological sciences, to a broader audience. We process every new neuroscience preprint as it is uploaded, transforming dense academic manuscripts into clear, plain-language explanations alongside detailed technical summaries. This ensures that both curious readers and specialists can stay current with the latest breakthroughs before they are formally published.

Below are the latest neuroscience papers we have processed from bioRxiv, offering fresh insights into the workings of the mind.

🧠 neuroscience

Biophysical mechanisms of default mode network function and dysfunction

By integrating whole-brain computational modeling with biophysical principles and mouse connectomics, this study elucidates how cellular excitatory-inhibitory imbalances and specific regional disruptions (particularly in the insula and retrosplenial cortex) govern the robustness, suppression, and distinct failure modes of the default mode network, thereby linking microscopic neuronal dysregulation to macroscopic network dysfunction in brain disorders.

Nghiem, T.-A. E., Menon, V.2026-02-16
🧠 neuroscience

Precision fMRI reveals densely interdigitated network patches with conserved motifs in the lateral prefrontal cortex

Using high-resolution precision fMRI, this study reveals that the lateral prefrontal cortex is organized into densely interdigitated, individual-specific network patches with conserved motifs and sharp functional boundaries, challenging the dominant view of smooth, domain-general gradients derived from group-averaged data.

Ladwig, Z., Kermani, K. Z., Park, Y., Housteau, E., Dworetsky, A., Labora, N., Hernandez, J. J., Dorn, M., Smith, D. M. (…)2026-02-16
🧠 neuroscience

Humans use a dual policy to improve inferences during epistemic information seeking

Through three studies involving 702 participants, the authors demonstrate that humans improve epistemic inference by employing a distinct two-stage policy—initially "streaking" to test hypotheses before shifting to uncertainty-guided exploration—which outperforms standard neural network strategies and reveals unique psychological traits beyond traditional reward-based exploration.

Cao, Y., Almeras, C., Lee, J. K., Maye, I., Wyart, V.2026-02-16
🧠 neuroscience

Cellular coding of ingestion in the caudal brainstem

This study reveals that during active eating, caudal nucleus of the solitary tract (cNTS) neurons primarily encode rapid, pregastric oral and pharyngeal signals rather than the gradual gut-derived feedback previously thought to drive satiety, with descending hypothalamic projections playing a key role in tracking ingestion dynamics to regulate meal termination.

Ly, T., Yi, X., Lee, G. R., Grove, J. C., Sibih, Y. E., Oh, Y. Y., Qiu, L., Namkung, H., Sivakumar, N., Knight, Z. A.2026-02-16
🧠 neuroscience

Disentangling Brain-Psychopathology Associations: A Systematic Evaluation of Transdiagnostic Latent Factor Models

This study utilizing two large developmental cohorts found that while transdiagnostic latent factor models can distinguish more distinct neural signatures between psychopathology dimensions, they do not systematically improve the reliability or strength of brain-psychopathology associations compared to traditional summary scores, suggesting that fundamental limits in explainable symptom variance may exist regardless of phenotypic modeling approaches.

Gell, M., Hoffmann, M. S., Moore, T. M., Nikolaidis, A., Gur, R. C., Salum, G. A., Milham, M. P., Langner, R., Mueller (…)2026-02-16
🧠 neuroscience

Modeling behavior to disentangle motion-related effects in functional ultrasound imaging in awake, head-fixed mice

This paper introduces a behavior-informed modeling framework that integrates continuous measurements of running speed and head motion into functional ultrasound imaging analysis, effectively disentangling motion-related confounds from neural signals to enable reliable brain-wide mapping during naturalistic, high-motion behaviors in awake mice.

Qin, C., Nelissen, F., Waasdorp, R., Lotfi, A., Rojas, C., De Angelis, L., Heemskerk, M., Maresca, D., Keysers, C., Heil (…)2026-02-16
🧠 neuroscience

Quantifying the Emergence of Population-Level Activity in Neuronal Systems

This paper proposes a computational framework combining information-theoretic and network science principles to demonstrate that population-level neural phenomena like oscillations and avalanches are genuine emergent properties driven by network-level interactions, with distinct temporal characteristics supported by both in-vivo data and in-silico simulations.

Rajpal, H., Mediano, P. A. M., Sas, M., Jensen, H. J., Rosas, F. E.2026-02-16
🧠 neuroscience

Distinct Neural Signatures of Auditory Processing in Contact versus Non-contact Sports Athletes

This study identifies reduced cortical N100 amplitudes in contact sport athletes compared to non-contact athletes as an objective EEG biomarker of early auditory cortical dysfunction resulting from repetitive sub-concussive head impacts, linking these neural changes to real-world speech perception deficits.

Andrew, J. R., Dean, E., Thomas, A., Plack, C. J., Gaffney, C. J., Nuttall, H. E.2026-02-16