Nature Neuroscience

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 12 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41593-026-02330-z Striatal direct and indirect pathways jointly control how many actions are performed during counting, and how animals move toward specific goals. These pathways implement a push–pull controller for discrete action counting as well as continuous movement control.

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 10 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41593-026-02289-x The cerebellum ages unevenly, with some regions showing preservation that may help protect the brain from decline. The authors show that large cerebellar volume is associated with stronger cognitive resilience in healthy aging and Alzheimer’s disease.

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 10 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41593-026-02326-9 A cell and spatial atlas of human brain aneurysms identifies an interaction between scarring fibroblasts and inflammatory macrophages linked to vessel wall remodeling, disease progression and rupture leading to stroke.

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 10 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41593-026-02322-z Li et al. used functional MRI-guided high-density electrophysiological recordings across macaque visual cortex to characterize responses to natural scenes, providing a resource for studying visual coding and cross-species comparisons.

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 09 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41593-026-02311-2 Busch et al. use nonlinear neural manifolds to help humans gain rapid control over a noninvasive brain–computer interface, allowing them to learn how to play a video game with real-time fMRI neurofeedback from cognitive brain regions.

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 08 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41593-026-02337-6 Stereotyped positioning of olfactory receptors

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 08 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41593-026-02334-9 The hippocampus is listening

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 08 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41593-026-02295-z Moment-to-moment lapses in attention shifting impair behavior and learning. These lapses are common in individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders involving attention deficits. We identify a neural signature that predicts delayed performance on a set-shifting task and show that real-time closed-loop neuromodulat…

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 08 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41593-026-02336-7 Flexibility begins in the dendrites

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 08 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41593-026-02335-8 Repetition on the brain

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 08 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41593-026-02318-9 Driessen et al. show that core benefits of sleep—reduced local sleep pressure, renormalized synaptic strength and memory consolidation—can be reproduced in awake, behaving mice by inducing sleep-like on/off activity patterns in cortex.

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 04 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41593-026-02266-4 Imaging axonal transport in vivo in the mouse cortex reveals that deficits in axonal transport arise at early stages of tau pathology, are caused by enlarged tau envelopes and are reversed by inhibiting MAPK p38α.

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 04 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41593-026-02338-5 Androgens — hormones that are generally present at higher levels in males than females — regulate intestinal transit, but their cellular targets and mechanisms of action are unclear. We identify the neurons that mediate androgen-dependent gut motility and reveal that androgen reactivation by a bacterial enzyme in …

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 03 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41593-026-02315-y O’Neill, Posani and colleagues show that while single amygdala neurons encode multiple emotional state-related variables (for example, valence, fear and safety), population-level geometry can enable one variable to be read out cleanly without interference.

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 03 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41593-026-02316-x By combining single-cell sequencing and morphogen screening, researchers map how signaling cues shape cell identity in mid-hindbrain organoids and identify conditions that generate novel posterior brain neuron types.

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 03 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41593-026-02313-0 This study identifies a brainstem pathway through which vagus nerve stimulation reduces pain and negative affect, showing how the caudal nucleus of the solitary tract transforms pain signals and regulates pain-related dopamine responses.

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 02 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41593-026-02321-0 This study shows that androgens signal to specific enteric neurons to stimulate gut motility. Bacterial metabolism of host-derived steroids generates the ligands, revealing a dynamic host–microbe interaction that influences nervous system function.

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 01 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41593-026-02324-x Using neuroimaging to understand the mechanisms of pain is an important task. But we must understand that the gold standard of measuring pain will always be the self-report.

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 01 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41593-026-02323-y Pain biomarkers cannot prove or disprove another person’s pain, but they need not be rejected as futile or reductionist. When developed within a bio-psycho-social framework and guided by epistemic humility and ethical safeguards, they can complement and enrich the voices of those living with pain rather than repla…

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 01 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41593-026-02301-4 In a nonhuman primate model, Fujimoto et al. show that deep brain stimulation promotes white matter remodeling and reorganizes brain-wide functional networks, detailing a mechanism through which this neuromodulation therapy may treat depression.