We are incredibly thankful to our volunteers, collaborators, and community members who have supported us over the past seven years. Because of your dedication and belief in our mission, we have reached remarkable milestones in neuroscience education, outreach, and awareness. Here is to another impactful year, pursuing the brain and unlocking the future...one neuron at a time!
The aim of our new column, Volunteer Spotlight at Simply Neuroscience, is to celebrate the passionate individuals who help drive our mission forward. 🤍
By highlighting volunteers’ stories and contributions, we hope to recognize their impact, share their experiences, and showcase the people helping make neuroscience more accessible and engaging for all.
Kasia Vang (Co-Director of the Marketing Team at Simply Neuroscience)
Kasia Vang currently works as a Behavioural Therapist and is a foundational member of the team. With interests in neuroplasticity and cross-cultural neuro ethics, she brings both scientific curiosity and creativity to her role at Simply Neuroscience.
She enjoys using storytelling as a way to make neuroscience more accessible and meaningful. One aspect she especially values is highlighting the impact individuals have made in the field, believing that learning about people’s contributions and the change they create can be deeply inspiring. As a marketer at SN, she also enjoys experimenting with different forms of content from short-form videos to carousels and exploring what resonates most with audiences.
Favourite Memory at SN:
“One of my favourite memories was attending the casual social events. Since Simply Neuroscience is an international organisation, it was amazing to connect with people from around the world. Hearing how neuroscience and mental health fields vary across countries gave me new perspectives and made the experience especially meaningful.”
Favourite Part of the 🧠: Frontal Lobe
Here is to the volunteers whose dedication and effort shape our organization into what it strives to be. 🙌
By: Nivriti S Thakur
Neuroscience is a field that is constantly evolving with new discoveries, debates, and developments emerging every month. To keep our Simply Neuroscience readers updated, this section called Synapse Monthly was newly introduced by the author to highlight significant and intriguing monthly developments that are shaping the world of neuroscience in the present day.
This Month in Neuro - May 2026
Brain-Computer Interfaces Reaches a New Milestone
As of May 2026, brain-computer interface (BCI) research continues to evolve and progress in clinical settings. Earlier this year in April, an implanted BCI surgery was completed for the first time in the U.S State of Colorado. The surgical trial involved installing a neural interface system in a patient with paralysis to record brain activity and to translate this recorded activity into commands for external devices.
In the past, BCIs were focused mainly on simple cursor or basic prosthetic control. However, current BCIs such as the one utilized in the surgery in Colorado are aiming at improving natural communication and functional assistance in the nervous system for patients.
Could future hearing aids read your attention? This May, a research paper published in Nature introduces a technology named Auditory attention decoding (AAD) which incorporates a BCI-based approach. AAD analyses the brain signals involving attention focus in the listener in order to enhance the voice of the intended speaker.
Though it is rather experimental at the moment, researchers are also investigating if BCIs can eventually support more complex motor planning and sensory feedback in individuals.
Scientists Explore How Social Media May Affect the Adolescent Brain
Several neuroscience studies this month have continued to examine the relationship between social media use and adolescent brain development. Using MRI Data, researchers in the ABCD Study found correlations between heavy social media use and structural changes that occurred in regions of the brain that are linked to reward processing, emotional regulation, and memory. While scientists have emphasized that correlation does not equate to causation, these findings have intensified popular discussions on regulating the use of digital technologies in adolescents. Such conversations can and are forming the foundation for legislative reforms that strive to introduce stricter measures such as more concrete regulations on age limits for social media platforms.
The Ethics Debate Around “Mind-Reading” Technology Continues
This month oversaw an increase in public attention towards non-invasive brain-reading devices that are being marketed by neurotechnology startups. Companies such as Sabi are promoting their products such as wearable caps and beanies that may be able to decode thoughts into text without requiring surgical implants by the end of this year. Although scientists remain skeptical of the empirical evidence surrounding these claims, these technologies have reignited major ethical discussion surrounding autonomy, consent, mental privatization and the commercialization of neural data.
In the present day, neuroscience continues to develop at a rapid pace by integrating research, technology and real-world applications in exponentially meaningful ways. As such new discoveries emerge, they continue to deepen our understanding of the brain and resolve neurological disorders while simultaneously raising important scientific and ethical questions. This field remains very dynamic, with much still to be explored.
Passionate about neuroscience and psychology, and love to write? Simply Neuroscience’s blog is accepting guest author submissions!
Neuroscience in Space Medicine (written by Vee Nguyen and edited by Fahad Hassan Shah).
“In the absence of gravity, bodily fluids cease their downward settling. Consequently, blood and cerebrospinal fluid are redistributed toward the head, a phenomenon termed a cephalad fluid shift, which can subsequently affect the drainage of blood from the brain and eyes.”
The Neuroscience of Jealousy and its Link to Dating Violence (written by Nidhi Sujin and edited by Nadia Hall).
“When jealousy hits, the amygdala registers the threat and triggers the release of stress hormones in the body. The prefrontal cortex tries to moderate the response, but it may be unsuccessful.”
Beneath the surface: The Neurobiology of Depression (written by Raghad AlGhamdi and edited by Fahad Hassan Shah)
“What if the depressed brain is not “broken”, but rather has difficulty adapting or changing?”
The Relationship Between Dreams and Stress (written by Deepika Miryala and edited by Ayush Halder and Nadia Hall)
“Dreaming is a state of sleep in which the brain imagines seemingly random scenarios and plays them out vividly, with elements of real life getting stitched together in ways that make them difficult to comprehend. Scientists are uncertain about the exact reasons why humans evolved this mechanism, but they have proposed several possible explanations.”
🎓 May - June Submission Period: PhD Position in Neuroguided Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Schizophrenia at the University of Lille
🐎 May 29th Application Deadline: USC Neuro Scholars summer program for high school students
🏫 May 31st Application Deadline: NEXTGEN Neuroschool for high school and undergraduate students to be introduced to neuroscience
💵 May 31st Application Deadline: IBRO Grant for neuroscience schools and training programs.
💭 May 31st Application Deadline: IBRO School on behavioral neuroscience focusing on sleep, cognition, and social brain for Masters students, PhD candidates and Postdoctoral researchers hosted at University of Tsukuba
👩🔬 June 1st & September 15th: NeuroFuture: Global Conversations on Women Driving Neuroscience Innovation’s virtual panel discussions exploring women’s leadership and emerging topics in neuroscience.
🏥 June 2nd Application Deadline: Research Assistant for The Department of Paediatrics in the Cumming School of Medicine to provide BCl technology for children severe neurological disabilities.
💡 June 3rd Application Deadline: NeuroPioneers Pathway program for middle and high school students.
🧠 June 4th, 11th, and 18th : American Brain Coalition Mild Cognitive Impairment Webinar Series.
🏢 June 5th Application Deadline: Postdoctoral Researcher position at the University of Helsinki in the Sari Lauri Research Group focused on investigating the functional maturation of neuronal circuits in healthy and diseased brains.
📜 June 10th Regular Submission Deadline: Society for Neuroscience (SfN) call for abstracts for Neuroscience 2026.
👨🏾🏫June 15th Application Deadline: IBRO Teaching Tools Workshops for teaching Neuroscience in African countries hosted in Rwanda.
📊 June 26th Application Deadline: Shanahan Post-Baccalaureate/Undergraduate fellowship in data interface and neuroscience.
🏛️ June 30th Application Deadline: IBRO School for postgraduates focused on strengthening science diplomacy in the Global South by exploring neuroscience, technology, ethics, and public policy.
📝 June 30th Application Deadline (Reviewed on Rolling Basis): Letters to Strangers Youth Mental Health Education Fellowship for US-based educational professionals in mental health education.
🐝 July 5th Registration Deadline: IYNA Virtual Brain Bee for high school students residing in countries with no official national Brain Bee.
🎓 July 6th Application Deadline: Dimensions Sciences Bridges Scholarship for Underrepresented Brazilian Early-Career Scientists
🏅 August 1st Submission Deadline: AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards
🌍August 3rd Submission Deadline: Call for manuscripts for Impact of climate change on mental health and wellbeing collection
P.S. While we are connected with some organizations whose opportunities are listed here, the Simply Neuroscience team is not directly involved in organizing the listed initiatives. Please visit the hyperlinked websites to learn more and contact the organizers.
Any questions, suggestions, or ideas? Opportunities or events you would like to share with the SN community? Feel free to contact us at info [at] simplyneuroscience.org
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