Feast or forage? Study finds circuit that helps a brain decide
By integrating multiple sensory inputs, a loop of mutual inhibition among a small set of neurons allows worms to switch between long-lasting behavioral states.
Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
MIT Future Founders Initiative announces prize competition to promote female entrepreneurs in biotech
Nine MIT researchers selected as finalists for 2021 prize supported by Northpond Ventures; grand prize winner to receive $250K toward commercializing her human health-related invention.
Study links gene to cognitive resilience in the elderly
The findings may help explain why some people who lead enriching lives are less prone to Alzheimer’s and age-related dementia.
School of Science appoints 11 faculty members to named professorships
Those selected for these positions receive additional support to pursue their research and develop their careers.
Study shows fragile X treatment can incur resistance, suggests ways around it
While the brain acquires resistance to continuous treatment with mGluR5 inhibitor drugs, lasting effects may still arise if dosing occurs intermittently and during a developmental-critical period.
Seven from MIT receive National Institutes of Health awards for 2021
Awards support high-risk, high-reward biomedical and behavioral research.
Behind the scenes, brain circuit ensures vision remains reliable
A study of mice watching movies shows our brain cells rely on a circuit of inhibitory neurons to help ensure that the same images are represented consistently.
Statistical model defines ketamine anesthesia’s effects on the brain
Neuroscientists at MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital develop a statistical framework that describes brain-state changes patients experience under ketamine-induced anesthesia.
Novel approach reverses amblyopia in animals
By temporarily suspending retinal activity in the non-amblyopic eye of animal models, neuroscientists restrengthen the visual response in the "lazy" eye, even at ages after the critical period when patch therapy fails.
Jordan Harrod: Brain researcher and AI-focused YouTuber
The PhD student uses machine learning as a tool for studying pain and consciousness — and as subject matter for her popular videos.
A pivot from accounting to neuroscience
Through a summer research program at MIT, Patricia Pujols explored the neuromuscular junction, and a future in science.
Brain’s “memory center” is needed to recognize image sequences, but not single sights
The visual cortex stores and remembers individual images, but mice can’t recognize image sequences without guidance from the hippocampus.
Five MIT School of Science professors receive tenure for 2021
Professors earn tenure in the departments of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Chemistry, and Physics.
Memory-making involves extensive DNA breaking
To quickly express learning and memory genes, brain cells snap both strands of DNA in many more places and cell types than previously realized, a new study shows.
As novel sights become familiar, different brain rhythms and neurons take over
As “visual recognition memory” emerges in the visual cortex, one circuit of inhibitory neurons supplants another, and slower neural oscillations prevail.