Dopamine primes the brain for enhanced vigilance
Neuroscientists discover a circuit that helps redirect attention to focus on potential threats.
Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
Neuroscientists gain new insights through innovation
Speakers at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory fall symposium highlight advances in microscopy, tissue engineering, and reporters of brain activity.
How working memory gets you through the day
A new model shows how brain waves are key to both maintenance and control of information in the mind.
Protein has unique effects on information processing
Picower Institute researchers find that a key protein linked to intellectual disability shapes electrical currents in neural connections.
To improve anesthesia, focus on neuroscience and nociception, experts urge
A principled approach can lead to less need for drugs, especially opioids, Emery Brown and colleagues say.
New perspectives at the bench
Three MIT postdocs earn competitive Howard Hughes Medical Institute fellowships that support diversity in the sciences.
Antidepressant restores youthful flexibility to aging inhibitory neurons
Neural plasticity and arbor growth decline with age, study in mice shows.
The debate over how working memory works
Scientists present dueling theories in the high-stakes quest to understand how we hold and juggle multiple pieces of information in mind.
As brain extracts meaning from vision, study tracks progression of processing
Six brain regions participate in a more blended way than has been appreciated.
What separates the strong from weak among connections in the brain
MIT study finds synapses develop strength with calcium, maturation.
Study shows where brain transforms seeing into doing
MIT neuroscientists find posterior parietal cortex region is crucial to connecting perception to action.
MIT scientists discover fundamental rule of brain plasticity
Study reveals how, when a synapse strengthens, its neighbors weaken.
Protein pair quickly makes memories of new places
MIT researchers find that encountering novel contexts cues the brain to churn out neurogranin.
Meet the School of Science’s tenured professors for 2018
Six faculty members are granted tenure in four departments.
Fighting toxic stress in children is tough but possible
Taking time to understand underlying causes of stress can help children escape debilitating health effects, symposium speakers argue.