Tag: Brain and cognitive sciences

MIT method enables ultrafast protein labeling of tens of millions of densely packed cells

A new technology developed at MIT enables scientists to label proteins across millions of individual cells in fully intact 3D tissues with unprecedented speed, uniformity, and versatility. Using the technology, the team was able to richly label large tissue samples in a single day. In their new study in Nature Biotechnology, they also demonstrate that […]

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Evelina Fedorenko receives Troland Award from National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) recently announced that MIT Associate Professor Evelina Fedorenko will receive a 2025 Troland Research Award for her groundbreaking contributions toward understanding the language network in the human brain. The Troland Research Award is given annually to recognize unusual achievement by early-career researchers within the broad spectrum of experimental psychology. […]

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Professor Emeritus Gerald Schneider, discoverer of the “two visual systems,” dies at 84

Gerald E. Schneider, a professor emeritus of psychology and member of the MIT community for over 60 years, passed away on Dec. 11, 2024. He was 84. Schneider was an authority on the relationships between brain structure and behavior, concentrating on neuronal development, regeneration or altered growth after brain injury, and the behavioral consequences of […]

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Modeling complex behavior with a simple organism

The roundworm C. elegans is a simple animal whose nervous system has exactly 302 neurons. Each of the connections between those neurons has been comprehensively mapped, allowing researchers to study how they work together to generate the animal’s different behaviors. Steven Flavell, an MIT associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences and investigator with the […]

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Three MIT students named 2026 Schwarzman Scholars

Three MIT students — Yutao Gong, Brandon Man, and Andrii Zahorodnii — have been awarded 2025 Schwarzman Scholarships and will join the program’s 10th cohort to pursue a master’s degree in global affairs at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. The MIT students were selected from a pool of over 5,000 applicants. This year’s class of […]

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How one brain circuit encodes memories of both places and events

Nearly 50 years ago, neuroscientists discovered cells within the brain’s hippocampus that store memories of specific locations. These cells also play an important role in storing memories of events, known as episodic memories. While the mechanism of how place cells encode spatial memory has been well-characterized, it has remained a puzzle how they encode episodic […]

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For healthy hearing, timing matters

When sound waves reach the inner ear, neurons there pick up the vibrations and alert the brain. Encoded in their signals is a wealth of information that enables us to follow conversations, recognize familiar voices, appreciate music, and quickly locate a ringing phone or crying baby. Neurons send signals by emitting spikes — brief changes […]

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Study suggests how the brain, with sleep, learns meaningful maps of spaces

On the first day of your vacation in a new city, your explorations expose you to innumerable individual places. While the memories of these spots (like a beautiful garden on a quiet side street) feel immediately indelible, it might be days before you have enough intuition about the neighborhood to direct a newer tourist to […]

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Teaching AI to communicate sounds like humans do

Whether you’re describing the sound of your faulty car engine or meowing like your neighbor’s cat, imitating sounds with your voice can be a helpful way to relay a concept when words don’t do the trick. Vocal imitation is the sonic equivalent of doodling a quick picture to communicate something you saw — except that […]

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Personal interests can influence how children’s brains respond to language

A recent study from the McGovern Institute for Brain Research shows how interests can modulate language processing in children’s brains and paves the way for personalized brain research. The paper, which appears in Imaging Neuroscience, was conducted in the lab of MIT professor and McGovern Institute investigator John Gabrieli, and led by senior author Anila […]

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MIT affiliates awarded 2024 National Medals of Science, Technology

Four MIT faculty members are among 23 world-class researchers who have been awarded the nation’s highest honors for scientists and innovators, the White House announced today. Angela Belcher and Emery Brown were each presented with the National Medal of Science at a White House ceremony this afternoon, and Paula Hammond ’84, PhD ’93, and Feng […]

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MIT welcomes Frida Polli as its next visiting innovation scholar

Frida Polli, a neuroscientist, entrepreneur, investor, and inventor known for her leading-edge contributions at the crossroads of behavioral science and artificial intelligence, is MIT’s new visiting innovation scholar for the 2024-25 academic year. She is the first visiting innovation scholar to be housed within the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. Polli began her career in […]

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New autism research projects represent a broad range of approaches to achieving a shared goal

From studies of the connections between neurons to interactions between the nervous and immune systems to the complex ways in which people understand not just language, but also the unspoken nuances of conversation, new research projects at MIT supported by the Simons Center for the Social Brain are bringing a rich diversity of perspectives to […]

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How humans continuously adapt while walking stably

Researchers have developed a model that explains how humans adapt continuously during complex tasks, like walking, while remaining stable. The findings were detailed in a recent paper published in the journal Nature Communications authored by Nidhi Seethapathi, an assistant professor in MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences; Barrett C. Clark, a robotics software engineer […]

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Revisiting reinforcement learning

Dopamine is a powerful signal in the brain, influencing our moods, motivations, movements, and more. The neurotransmitter is crucial for reward-based learning, a function that may be disrupted in a number of psychiatric conditions, from mood disorders to addiction.  Now, researchers led by MIT Institute Professor Ann Graybiel have found surprising patterns of dopamine signaling […]

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Study: Browsing negative content online makes mental health struggles worse

People struggling with their mental health are more likely to browse negative content online, and in turn, that negative content makes their symptoms worse, according to a series of studies by researchers at MIT. The group behind the research has developed a web plug-in tool to help those looking to protect their mental health make […]

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3 Questions: Claire Wang on training the brain for memory sports

On Nov. 10, some of the country’s top memorizers converged on MIT’s Kresge Auditorium to compete in a “Tournament of Memory Champions” in front of a live audience. The competition was split into four events: long-term memory, words-to-remember, auditory memory, and double-deck of cards, in which competitors must memorize the exact order of two decks […]

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Four from MIT named 2025 Rhodes Scholars

Yiming Chen ’24, Wilhem Hector, Anushka Nair, and David Oluigbo have been selected as 2025 Rhodes Scholars and will begin fully funded postgraduate studies at Oxford University in the U.K. next fall. In addition to MIT’s two U.S. Rhodes winners, Oluigbo and Nair, two affiliates were awarded international Rhodes Scholarships: Chen for Rhodes’ China constituency and […]

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Neuroscientists create a comprehensive map of the cerebral cortex

By analyzing brain scans taken as people watched movie clips, MIT researchers have created the most comprehensive map yet of the functions of the brain’s cerebral cortex. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data, the research team identified 24 networks with different functions, which include processing language, social interactions, visual features, and other types of […]

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