Tackling the MIT campus’s top energy consumers, building by building
A full-building energy efficiency project aims to reduce total campus emissions by 2 percent.
Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
From molecular to whole-brain scale in a simple animal, study reveals serotonin’s effects
With full genetic control and visibility into neural activity and behavior, MIT scientists map out chemical’s role in behavior.
3 Questions: A new model of nervous system form, function, and evolution
Developing a new neuroscience model is no small feat. New faculty member Brady Weissbourd has risen to the challenge in order to study nervous system evolution, development, regeneration, and function.
3 Questions: Sara Prescott on the brain-body connection
New MIT faculty member investigates how sensory input from within the body controls mammalian physiology and behavior.
MIT School of Science announces 2023 Infinite Mile Awards
Seven staff members honored for their dedication to the School of Science and to the Institute.
Studying consciousness without affecting it
A new study tests an alternative to external stimulation for measuring when subjects lose and regain responsiveness during sedation and anesthesia.
Neuroscientists identify cells especially vulnerable to Alzheimer’s
Neurons that form part of a memory circuit are among the first brain cells to show signs of neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease.
A new peptide may hold potential as an Alzheimer’s treatment
The peptide blocks a hyperactive brain enzyme that contributes to the neurodegeneration seen in Alzheimer’s and other diseases.
Astrocyte cells critical for learning skilled movements
When astrocyte function is disrupted, neurons in the brain’s motor cortex struggle to execute and refine motion, a new study in mice shows.
“Spatial computing” enables flexible working memory
The brain applies rhythms to physical patches of the cortex to selectively control just the right neurons at the right times to do the right things.
3 Questions: Mriganka Sur on the research origins of the first approved drug to treat Rett syndrome
On March 10 the FDA approved Trofinetide, a drug based on the protein IGF-1. The MIT professor's original research showing that IGF-1 could treat Rett was published in 2009.
School of Science presents 2023 Infinite Expansion Awards
Seven postdocs and research scientists honored for contributions to the Institute.
Sparse, small, but diverse neural connections help make perception reliable, efficient
First detailed mapping and modeling of thalamus inputs onto visual cortex neurons show brain leverages “wisdom of the crowd” to process sensory information.
New technologies reveal cross-cutting breakdowns in Alzheimer’s disease
“Single-cell profiling” is helping neuroscientists see how disease affects major brain cell types and identify common, potentially targetable pathways.
Holding information in mind may mean storing it among synapses
Comparing models of working memory with real-world data, MIT researchers find information resides not in persistent neural activity, but in the pattern of its connections.