MIT researchers have developed a noninvasive method to stimulate specific neurons deep in the brain that could be used to help treat patients with diseases such as Parkinson’s, reports Meredith Wadman for Science. This new method could also allow scientists to “selectively prod deep-brain neurons into action,” explains Wadman.
Writing for Wired, Abigail Beal highlights how MIT researchers have developed a noninvasive technique to trigger reactions in deep brain cells using low frequency electrical signals. “If we could noninvasively stimulate deep regions, without hitting overlying regions, we might be able to help more people because we could stimulate deep regions selectively, without needing surgery,” explains Prof. Ed Boyden.
New York Times reporter Pam Belluck writes that MIT researchers have developed a new, non-invasive deep brain stimulation technique. The technique could be used to help treat, “a range of neurological and psychiatric disorders more cheaply and safely than current approaches,” writes Belluck.
MIT researchers have developed a non-invasive technique for deep brain stimulation, which could be used to help patients with brain diseases, reports Mo Costandi for The Guardian. “Targets for disorders such as depression, Alzheimer’s, PTSD, and so forth, are deep in the brain, and they might be more selectively stimulatable with our method,” says Prof. Ed Boyden.
Susan Hockfield, president emerita of MIT, has been named to U.S. News & World Report’s 2017 STEM Leadership Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame honors leaders, “who have achieved measurable results in the science, technology, engineering and math fields; challenged established processes and conventional wisdom; inspired a shared vision; and motivated aspiring STEM professionals.”
Prof. Emery Brown is a guest on WBUR’s Radio Boston to discuss the feasibility of merging computers with the human brain in an attempt to keep up with artificial intelligence. “Putting the emphasis on using the computational power to understand the physiology and neurocircuitry of the brain is where the success is going to come,” suggests Brown.
TIME reporter Alice Park writes that MIT researchers have modified the CRISPR gene-editing system so that it could be used to diagnose disease. Park explains that the researchers, “used CRISPR to recognize specific substances that bacteria and viruses make. Picking up even the slightest whisper of these products can alert doctors that an infection is active.”
MIT researchers have developed a new technique that uses the CRISPR gene-editing system to diagnose diseases, reports Joel Achenbach for The Washington Post. Achenbach explains that the tool could potentially be used to “detect not only viral and bacterial diseases but also potentially for finding cancer-causing mutations.”
Simon Makin of Scientific American writes that MIT researchers have discovered the brain uses a complimentary memory system that simultaneously creates and stores both long and short-term memories. “There is a division of labor. The hippocampus can form active memories very quickly, while the cortex takes care of long-term stability,” explains Prof. Susumu Tonegawa.
A study by MIT researcher suggests that the brain simultaneously creates long and short-term memories, reports Tim De Chant for NOVA. The findings suggest that one version “is filed away in the hippocampus, the center of short-term memories, while the other is stored in cortex, where our long-term memories reside.”
BBC News reporter James Gallagher writes that MIT researchers have found that the brain may simultaneously create short-term and long-term versions of memories. Prof. Susumu Tonegawa explains that “understanding how this happens may be relevant in brain disease patients.”
A new study by MIT researchers suggests that, contrary to previous findings, the human brain may store short-term and long-term memories at the same time, reports Andy Rosen for The Boston Globe. Rosen writes that the findings could “lead toward a better understanding of memory diseases like Alzheimer’s.”
Meg Tirrell of CNBC spotlights research by Prof. Li-Huei Tsai that shows that flashing lights could be used as a non-invasive treatment method for Alzheimer’s disease. Tsai and her colleagues found that flashing light could potentially be used to restore gamma rhythms in the brain, which are often impaired in people with Alzheimer’s.
Wired reporter Nicola Davison spotlights the work of graduate student Dheeraj Roy, whose research is focused on developing new techniques to help Alzheimer’s patients remember lost memories. Davison writes that Roy’s findings offer a potential “strategy for improving memory that could go beyond the modest benefit of available drugs.”
Postdoc Matthew Peterson speaks with WGBH reporter Edgar Herwick about why humans make eye contact. Peterson explains that humans are not good at judging where they are looking when talking to others, adding that the information we use is “highly concentrated in the eye region. So even if we're not looking at the eyes directly, we're using the eyes."