Researchers from the Washington National Primate Research Center Neuroscience Unit made a big impact at this year’s Society for Neuroscience (SfN) meeting, sharing 27 different scientific presentations. This large wide-ranging set of contributions shows how our teams are helping push neuroscience forward in meaningful, practical ways.
The studies covered everything from basic brain wiring to vision, learning, and new tools that can change how scientists study the brain. Here are some of the standout projects:
Why different parts of the brain learn differently
One project showed that two neighboring brain areas, one that helps control movement and one that processes touch, don’t adapt to stimulation in the same way. This suggests that future brain-based therapies, like those used after injuries or strokes, may need to be tailored to each specific region rather than using a one-size-fits-all approach.
How the brain keeps the world “steady” when your eyes jump around
Every time you move your eyes, your visual world should technically blur. But it doesn’t; your brain keeps things stable. WaNPRC scientists uncovered signals in a part of the brain involved in vision that help update this “steady view” even when the eyes move rapidly. Understanding this process can eventually help with conditions that affect visual stability.
How the brain finds objects in cluttered scenes
Researchers tested how monkeys identify animals in very challenging pictures, like those made of dots or high-contrast black-and-white shapes. They found that mid-level visual areas and the prefrontal cortex work together to pull meaningful objects out of visual noise. This offers clues about how we make sense of complicated images in the real world.
How the brain recognizes shapes even when lighting changes
Another team discovered that a key visual area continues to recognize an object’s shape even when its brightness flips from light-on-dark to dark-on-light. This means the brain stores shape information in a way that’s tied to the object itself, not the lighting—similar to how you can recognize a friend’s face whether they’re in sunlight or shadow.
What changes across layers of the brain’s “first stop” for vision
Using recordings from thousands of neurons, researchers found that the way cells respond to overlapping patterns (like stripes or textures) changes depending on their depth within the visual cortex. This gives scientists a clearer map of how early visual processing works.
A breakthrough tool for turning brain activity off with light
One exciting advance this year was a new optogenetics technique that uses red light to temporarily quiet specific brain cells—no surgery required beyond the original gene delivery. The effect lasts more than a year and works through the brain’s protective covering. This is a major step forward for long-term, minimally invasive brain research.
The first direct look at how the brain filters visual information during eye movements
Scientists identified individual pairs of connected cells between the eye and the first visual relay in the brain. They found that this connection briefly “dials down” signals right before an eye movement, then opens back up afterward—almost like a camera adjusting exposure during motion. This helps explain how the brain avoids blurry vision.
Big steps toward mapping the brain’s wiring in multiple species
Two presentations showed how barcoding technologies – tools that label neurons with unique molecular “IDs”-are being adapted for use in monkeys and other species. These methods could make it possible to map brain wiring at a massive scale.
How the brain gets better at learning new tasks
In a long-term study, researchers found that as animals learned many different problems over time, brain cells in memory and decision-making areas started representing information in more flexible, general ways. This work helps explain how we develop “learning-to-learn” skills, being able to pick up new tasks more easily with experience.
Together, these presentations highlight just how much groundbreaking work WaNPRC researchers are contributing to the field. Their discoveries deepen our understanding of how the brain sees, learns, adapts, and connects, and they pave the way for future advances in treating human neurological conditions.
This year’s SfN meeting confirmed what we already knew: our scientists are helping shape the future of neuroscience.