James DiCarlo named director of the MIT Quest for Intelligence
Brain and cognitive sciences professor will lead the Institute’s interdisciplinary initiative to advance research in natural and artificial intelligence.
McGovern Institute
Scientists seek insight into Parkinson’s, addiction by tracking gene expression in the brain
Two MIT faculty members earn funding from the G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Foundation.
Stars, brains, and enzymes: a celebration of MIT science
First virtual MIT Better World gathering featured MIT researchers sharing some of the ways the Institute excels as a hub of science and innovation.
Controlling drug activity with light
Miniaturized device activates drugs in a small region deep within the brain.
To the brain, reading computer code is not the same as reading language
Neuroscientists find that interpreting code activates a general-purpose brain network, but not language-processing centers.
One more clue to brain changes in Huntington’s disease
Opioid receptor MOR1 changes discovered in neurodegenerative disease model.
Neuroscientists find a way to make object-recognition models perform better
Adding a module that mimics part of the brain can prevent common errors made by computer vision models.
How humans use objects in novel ways to solve problems
What's SSUP? The Sample, Simulate, Update cognitive model developed by MIT researchers learns to use tools like humans do.
Lincoln Laboratory establishes Biotechnology and Human Systems Division
Will focus on responding to disasters and humanitarian crises, defending against biothreats, addressing climate change, and improving human health and performance.
Imaging method reveals a “symphony of cellular activities”
Fluorescent imaging technique simultaneously captures different signal types from multiple locations in a live cell.
A hunger for social contact
Neuroscientists find that isolation provokes brain activity similar to that seen during hunger cravings.
Identifying the structure and function of a brain hub
A direct comparison of sensory and higher-order thalamic circuits reveals fundamental differences in how they control the cerebral cortex.
Using machine learning to track the pandemic’s impact on mental health
Textual analysis of social media posts finds users’ anxiety and suicide-risk levels are rising, among other negative trends.
Study helps explain why motivation to learn declines with age
Research on mice suggests aging affects a brain circuit critical for learning to make some types of decisions.
Neural pathway crucial to successful rapid object recognition in primates
Recurrent processing via prefrontal cortex, necessary for quick visual object processing in primates, provides a key insight for developing brain-like artificial intelligence.