Picower Institute for Learning and Memory

An operating room monitor includes EEG readings of the patient while under general anesthesia.

To improve anesthesia, focus on neuroscience and nociception, experts urge

A principled approach can lead to less need for drugs, especially opioids, Emery Brown and colleagues say.

October 4, 2018

MIT's 2018 HHMI Hanna Gray fellows are (l-r) Jarrett Smith, Quinton Smith, and Matheus Victor.

New perspectives at the bench

Three MIT postdocs earn competitive Howard Hughes Medical Institute fellowships that support diversity in the sciences.

September 12, 2018

Tracking the growth of neuron arbors under the microscope over two weeks, researchers typically saw growth beyond the arrow marker in 6-month-old mice (green), but none beyond the marker in 18-month old mice (red).

Antidepressant restores youthful flexibility to aging inhibitory neurons

Neural plasticity and arbor growth decline with age, study in mice shows.

August 20, 2018

Neuroscientists are debating the nature and meaning of neural activity during the critical moment of working memory when people must hold information in mind.

The debate over how working memory works

Scientists present dueling theories in the high-stakes quest to understand how we hold and juggle multiple pieces of information in mind.

August 9, 2018

As it moves from a raw perception to a categorical judgement, information is processed via a gradual progression among many areas of the brain's cortex.

As brain extracts meaning from vision, study tracks progression of processing

Six brain regions participate in a more blended way than has been appreciated.

July 18, 2018

Calcium channels (labeled green at top) denote active zones along a fly neuron. Their brightness correlates well, for instance at white arrows, with higher synaptic strength (denoted by warmer colors at bottom).

What separates the strong from weak among connections in the brain

MIT study finds synapses develop strength with calcium, maturation.

July 10, 2018

PPC neurons, engineered to glow when active, flicker in response to a mouse seeing a visual stimulus and deciding whether to respond with a licking motion.

Study shows where brain transforms seeing into doing

MIT neuroscientists find posterior parietal cortex region is crucial to connecting perception to action.

July 3, 2018

The image of a dendrite and its spines was reconstructed with electron microscopy (foreground) after it was imaged with two-photon microscopy in an intact brain (background).

MIT scientists discover fundamental rule of brain plasticity

Study reveals how, when a synapse strengthens, its neighbors weaken.

June 22, 2018

Brighter fluorescence (at right) represents greater expression of the protein neurogranin in the hippocampus of mice exposed to new contexts (versus mice not exposed to new contexts, at left). The quick production of neurogranin is believed to help in the creation of new memories.

Protein pair quickly makes memories of new places

MIT researchers find that encountering novel contexts cues the brain to churn out neurogranin.

June 6, 2018

Newly tenured professors in the School of Science (clockwise from top left): Daniel Cziczo, Matthew Evans, Anna Frebel, Aram Harrow, Adam Martin, and Kay Tye.

Meet the School of Science’s tenured professors for 2018

Six faculty members are granted tenure in four departments.

June 4, 2018

Ravi Raju, a Picower Clinical Research Fellow, explains how gene expression differs as mice respond to circumstances modeling poverty.

Fighting toxic stress in children is tough but possible

Taking time to understand underlying causes of stress can help children escape debilitating health effects, symposium speakers argue.

May 31, 2018

MIT neuroscientists have performed a comprehensive study of the APOE4 gene, which increases risk for Alzheimer’s disease, and the more common form of the gene, APOE3.

Neuroscientists discover roles of gene linked to Alzheimer’s

Study reveals why people with the APOE4 gene have higher risk of the disease.

May 31, 2018

It’s often said that experience is the best teacher, but the experiences of other people may be even better.

Brain circuit helps us learn by watching others

Scientists pinpoint neural interactions that are necessary for observational learning.

May 3, 2018

Three brain regions collaborate to produce working memory, but when it reaches capacity, their synchrony breaks down.

A heavy working memory load may sink brainwave 'synch'

Picower Institute study explains what happens when working memory reaches its full capacity.

April 6, 2018

School of Science announces Infinite Mile Awards for 2018

Seven staff members honored for their outstanding contributions to the MIT community.

April 3, 2018

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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