Cortical neurons comprising an output pathway form a specialized population code that enhances the propagation of information to a downstream target, potentially improving the accuracy of decision-making.

Working memory improves during adolescent brain development. Zhu et al. tracked monkeys through adolescence, revealing that maturation of white matter tracts and refinement of neural firing patterns sharpen working memory precision.

The authors mapped the dendritic morphology of thousands of striatal D1-type and D2-type medium spiny neurons in healthy and Huntington’s disease mouse brains, revealing dendritic modules with distinct neuronal shapes, spatial distributions and cortical inputs.

Liu and colleagues show that the vigor (that is, speed and amplitude) of dexterous movements is not controlled by ongoing fluctuations in extracellular dopamine within the dorsal striatum of mice.

Koh, Ma et al. show that during climbing, mouse motor cortex instructs limb muscle activity patterns primarily by selectively activating certain muscles at certain activity states, via neural activity patterns distinct from those previously described.

Microglia influence amyloid-β effects on astrocyte reactivity in the living brain of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease. This phenomenon further contributes to cognitive impairment via tau phosphorylation and aggregation.

Dominant coactivation patterns are primarily studied in resting-state fMRI. Here, the authors study the rest of the signal, which reveals ‘caricatured’ connectomes with improved behavioral prediction.

The authors develop a neural probe with over 1,000 light emitters arranged along its length and circumference, enabling panoramic 3D optical stimulation across large brain volumes.

The authors mapped the dendritic morphology of thousands of striatal D1-type and D2-type medium spiny neurons in healthy and Huntington’s disease mouse brains, revealing dendritic modules with distinct neuronal shapes, spatial distributions and cortical inputs.

A pioneer in oculomotor neuroscience, Edward L. Keller identified key elements of the brainstem circuits that produce eye movements and provided the foundation for decades of research on neural control of gaze. He passed away on 4 July 2025.

This Comment calls on scientists to acknowledge how insufficient communication and limited engagement beyond academia have deepened the divide between science and the public. Restoring trust requires a paradigm shift in which scientists accept that the responsibility to champion science lies with us. We propose a new model in which public communication and advocacy are considered as essential to our mission as rigor and reproducibility — critical not only for safeguarding science, but also for ensuring that its benefits reach all segments of the societies we serve.