Prof. Edward Boyden speaks with Boston Globe reporter Murray Carpenter about how scientists need more powerful computers to help gain a better understanding of brain function. “The cool part of neuroengineering is that we have all these unmet needs,” Boyden says. “I think there is an enormous amount of hope generated by bringing new tools into neuroscience.”
In this Today Show segment, Prof. Earl Miller and Prof. Robert Desimone discuss how the brain reacts to the information overload that comes from using multiple digital tools at once. “The brain has a great deal of difficulty processing multiple bits of data at once,” explains Miller. "We are very, very single minded.”
In this video, Prof. Edward Boyden speaks with The Huffington Post about how sleep and meditation impact people on a neurological level. Boyden says that traditions such as mediation can “help us be more attuned to what our mind really wants.”
In an article for The Boston Globe’s special section about the 2015 Bostonians of the Year, Sharon Begley writes about the work of Prof. Feng Zhang. Begley writes that Zhang, "is one of the world’s most creative and influential biological engineers, able to see possibilities where others don’t.”
MIT researchers have identified a link between reduced neurotransmitter activity and the symptoms of autism, reports Carolyn Gregoire for The Huffington Post. The findings “may pave the way for new methods of treating and diagnosing” autism.
MIT researchers have identified the region of the brain that perceives music, reports Emily Reynolds for Wired. The researchers found that one area of the brain “responded most to music, another to speech, and the other four to different acoustic properties such as pitch and frequency.”
Huffington Post reporter Lila Shapiro speaks with Robert Desimone, director of the McGovern Institute, about the use of the CRISPR gene-editing technique to treat neurological diseases. “CRISPR’s impact is potentially across the board,” says Desimone. “It went from nothing just a few years ago to being a tool that’s in everyone’s toolbox.”
Postdoctoral fellow Steve Ramirez speaks with Bob Seay, host of WGBH’s Morning Edition, about his work with memory manipulation, which could be helpful for patients with PTSD or Alzheimer’s. Ramirex explains that his research shows the proof of principle “that we can go in and isolate one memory in the brain.”
Prof. John Gabrieli speaks with WGBH’s Arun Rath about the effectiveness of standardized testing in the U.S. Gabrieli explains that researchers have, “consistently found academic achievement tests of the kind given by states in the United States correlate considerably with other independent measures of cognitive ability.”
STAT reporter Andrew Joseph writes about optogenetics and Prof. Edward Boyden’s work developing this technique for turning neurons on and off. “There are just huge frontiers out there for which optogenetics will be one of our most powerful tools,” said Robert Desimone, director of the McGovern Institute.
Boston Globe reporter Felicia Gans writes that a number of MIT researchers have been honored “by the Breakthrough Prize organization, which honors scientists worldwide for their pioneering research.”
Prof. Edward Boyden has been honored as one of the recipients of the Breakthrough Prize, reports Sarah McBride for Reuters. Boyden is being recognized for his work “developing and implementing optogenetics,” writes McBride, which could open “a new path to treatments for Parkinson’s, depression, Alzheimer’s and blindness.”
Writing for Scientific American, Simon Makin explores the many applications of optogenetics, a tool developed by Prof. Edward Boyden, for which he was recently honored with a Breakthrough Prize. Makin explains that, “researchers have devised ways of broadening optogenetics to enter into a dynamic dialogue with the signals moving about inside functioning brains.”
In an article for Science, Rhitu Chatterjee writes about Project Prakash, an effort started by Prof. Pawan Sinha to help children with preventable or treatable blindness see. Chatterjee writes that the project has brought hundreds of young people, “into the light—while putting the field of visual neuroscience in a new light as well.”
Writing for BetaBoston, Nidhi Subbaraman reports that Prof. Polina Anikeeva has received a new grant from DARPA to investigate ways to stimulate specific neurons in the body using fibers or nanoparticles. “Zapping key nerves with a current, ultrasound, or with light is expected to treat a range of conditions,” Subbaraman explains.