After 16 years leading Picower Institute, Li-Huei Tsai will sharpen focus on research, teaching
Tsai, who has grown the MIT neuroscience institute, will increase focus on research including Alzheimer’s disease and Down syndrome.
Department
Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Pursuing a passion for public health
MIT senior Srihitha Dasari reflects on the power of experiential learning through the PKG Center for Social Impact.
Brain circuit needed to incorporate new information may be linked to schizophrenia
Impairments of this circuit may help to explain why some people with schizophrenia lose touch with reality.
Three anesthesia drugs all have the same effect in the brain, MIT researchers find
Discovering this common mechanism could lead to a universal anesthesia-delivery system to monitor patients more effectively.
Scientists discover genetics behind leaky brain blood vessels in Rett syndrome
By showing the problem derives from genetic mutations that lead to overexpression of a microRNA, MIT researchers’ study points to potential treatment.
How the brain handles the “cocktail party problem”
Using a computational model, neuroscientists showed how the brain can selectively focus attention on one voice among others in a noisy environment.
Neurons receive precisely tailored teaching signals as we learn
New work suggests the brain can deliver neuron-specific feedback during learning — resembling the error signals that drive machine learning.
MIT-Royalty Pharma Faculty Founder Initiative supports biotech innovators
Offering substantial prize funding alongside workshops, classes, and mentorship, the initiative helps translate early-stage biotech research into venture-ready innovation.
Fragile X study uncovers brain wave biomarker bridging humans and mice
Researchers find mice modeling the autism spectrum disorder fragile X syndrome exhibit the same pattern of differences in low-frequency waves as humans — a new marker for treatment studies.
MIT faculty, alumni named 2026 Sloan Research Fellows
Annual award honors early-career researchers for creativity, innovation, and research accomplishments.
AI algorithm enables tracking of vital white matter pathways
Opening a new window on the brainstem, a new tool reliably and finely resolves distinct nerve bundles in live diffusion MRI scans, revealing signs of injury or disease.
A satellite language network in the brain
Researchers find a component of the brain’s dedicated language network in the cerebellum, a region better known for coordinating movement.
How a unique class of neurons may set the table for brain development
Somatostatin-expressing neurons follow a unique trajectory when forming connections in the visual cortex that may help establish the conditions needed for sensory experience to refine circuits.
Q&A: A simpler way to understand syntax
A new book by Professor Ted Gibson brings together his years of teaching and research to detail the rules of how words combine.
Biology-based brain model matches animals in learning, enables new discovery
New “biomimetic” model of brain circuits and function at multiple scales produced naturalistic dynamics and learning, and even identified curious behavior by some neurons.