The new devices, which monitor neural activity from within blood vessels, show long-term stability in rats and could one day deliver electrical stimulation.

This edition of Null and Noteworthy highlights results that reveal the difficulty in drawing definitive conclusions from data, including new findings about epidurals that contradict several others and an apparent null result on sex differences that may derive from “circular logic.”

Researchers took to social media to discuss how cognitive maps form during learning. There was also talk about a study of peripheral nerves in mice missing PTEN, an autism-linked gene. That and more in this week’s Community Newsletter.

Here is a roundup of news and research spotted around the web for the week of 7 August.

The paper was published in a journal that shut down after being overrun by paper mills.

Over one hour, a particularly motivated mouse poked its nose 350 times into a hole in the test chamber in the hopes of meeting a playmate.

Academics are not always aware of the standards — both explicit and implicit — that are used to assess them for promotion. We explore these expectations and more in this month’s issue of the Spectrum Launch newsletter.

The most prevalent conditions include obesity, neurological disorders, anxiety and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

The map, by far the largest one of an entire brain to date, contains 130,000 neurons and 53 million synapses.

A look back at NeuroDev’s first year gathering genomic and phenotypic data in Kenya and South Africa and a study on an underlying cause of repetitive behaviors in fragile X model mice absorbed researchers’ attention on social media this week. That and more in this week’s Community Newsletter.