Brain and cognitive sciences

Pictured is an artist’s interpretation of neurons firing in sporadic, coordinated bursts. “By having these different bursts coming at different moments in time, you can keep different items in memory separate from one another,” Earl Miller says.

A new glimpse into working memory

Study finds bursts of neural activity as the brain holds information in mind, overturns a long-held model.

March 17, 2016

Researchers say the findings raise the possibility of developing future treatments that might reverse some of the memory loss seen in early-stage Alzheimer’s.

“Lost” memories can be found

Neuroscientists retrieve missing memories in mice with early Alzheimer’s symptoms.

March 16, 2016

The Pirahã reside along the Maici River, which branches off the Amazon in Brazil. MIT researchers are now making public the most extensive data set yet accumulated on the Pirahã language.

Bringing more data to language debate

Larger set of translations may shed light on an idiosyncratic Amazonian language.

March 9, 2016

"[W]e hope that our studies of vps-50 will provide insights into human neuropsychiatric disorders,” H. Robert Horvitz says.

Neuroscientists discover a gene that controls worms’ behavioral state

Gene required for the control of behavioral state is also found in humans, may be linked to autism.

March 3, 2016

McGovern Institute for Brain Research awards Scolnick Prize to neurogeneticist Cori Bargmann

Bargmann honored for her work on the genetic and neural mechanisms that control behavior in the nematode C. elegans.

March 1, 2016

MIT faculty recipients of the 2016 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers are: (clockwise from top left) Kay Tye, Cullen Buie, Tonio Buonassisi, and William Tisdale.

Four MIT faculty win Presidential Early Career Awards

Buie, Buonassisi, Tisdale, and Tye honored with the U.S. government's highest award for young scientists and engineers.

February 19, 2016

MIT senior takes on double major in brain and cognitive sciences plus theater arts

Abra Shen pursues medicine and theater, and someday hopes to combine the two.

February 19, 2016

Neuroscientists reverse autism symptoms

Turning on a gene later in life can restore typical behavior in mice.

February 17, 2016

In this image of the dorsal raphe nucleus, dopamine neurons are labeled in green, red, or both (appearing yellow).

Pinpointing loneliness in the brain

Scientists identify cells that represent feelings of isolation.

February 11, 2016

Cartoon stoplight with red "on" light illuminated. Green "off" light is dark.

A day in the life of a synapse reveals new facets of the adult brain

February 4, 2016

“We wanted to find the link,” Gloria Choi says. “How do you go all the way from the immune system in the mother to the child’s brain?”

How severe maternal inflammation can lead to autism-like behavior

Immune molecules in infected mothers tied to brain and behavior abnormalities in offspring.

January 28, 2016

Edward Boyden wins BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award

Three neuroscientists share biomedicine prize for development of optogenetics

January 27, 2016

MIT researchers scanned the brains of children who were not depressed but had a parent who had suffered from the disorder. Such children are three times more likely to become depressed later in life, usually between the ages of 15 and 30.

Diagnosing depression before it starts

Brain scans may identify children who are vulnerable to depression, before symptoms appear.

January 21, 2016

Two professors to join the School of Science faculty this spring

January 20, 2016

MIT neuroscientists discovered that the protein CPG2 connects the cytoskeleton (represented by the scaffold of the bridge) and the endocytic machinery (represented by the cars) during the reabsorption of glutamate receptors. Each "car" on the “bridge" carries a vesicle containing glutamate receptors.

How neurons lose their connections

Scientists identify protein that allows brain cells to dampen their sensitivity.

January 14, 2016

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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