Brain and Cognitive Sciences

In the top image, a neuronal axon (green) forms many synapses, highlighted in purple. The bottom image shows an axon from a fruit fly lacking the Shank protein. In these flies, not as many synapses form, and some of them (indicated by the white arrows) do not fully mature.

Neuroscientists illuminate role of autism-linked gene

Loss of Shank gene prevents neuronal synapses from properly maturing.

May 24, 2016

Four MIT professors elected to the American Philosophical Society

May 13, 2016

A committee of MIT faculty and staff, along with representatives from the new Woodrow Wilson Academy of Teaching and Learning, selected three proposals to fund.

Grant funds innovation in teacher education

New program provides funding for three projects working to improve STEM education.

May 3, 2016

Controlling RNA in living cells

Modular, programmable proteins can be used to track or manipulate gene expression.

April 25, 2016

April 12 symposium: Take an immersive, intellectual journey across campus

Beyond 2016: MIT’s Frontiers of the Future event offers a playful introduction to research at MIT.

April 5, 2016

Two neurons of the basolateral amygdala. MIT neuroscientists have found that these neurons play a key role in separating information about positive and negative experiences.

How the brain processes emotions

Neuroscientists identify circuits that could play a role in mental illnesses, including depression.

March 31, 2016

School of Science honors staff with 2016 Infinite Mile Awards

March 28, 2016

Children participants in an "Unruly Art" session.

Learning more about the brain

Pawan Sinha explores the cognitive dynamics behind our visual understanding of the world around us.

March 24, 2016

The brain’s thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN), highlighted in the center, is responsible for blocking out distracting sensory input. "For autism, schizophrenia, and other neurodevelopmental disorders, it seems like TRN dysfunction may be involved in some patients,” Guoping Feng says.

Study reveals a basis for attention deficits

New findings could help scientists develop treatments for ADHD and other disorders.

March 23, 2016

Feng Zhang receives 2016 Canada Gairdner International Award

Broad/MIT scientist among five honored as pioneers of CRISPR-Cas9 system.

March 23, 2016

“I was always interested in biology but I felt that it’s important to get a solid training in chemistry and physics,” Feng Zhang says.

Toward a better understanding of the brain

Genome-editing pioneer Feng Zhang hopes his work will shed light on neurological disorders.

March 22, 2016

Pictured is an artist’s interpretation of neurons firing in sporadic, coordinated bursts. “By having these different bursts coming at different moments in time, you can keep different items in memory separate from one another,” Earl Miller says.

A new glimpse into working memory

Study finds bursts of neural activity as the brain holds information in mind, overturns a long-held model.

March 17, 2016

Researchers say the findings raise the possibility of developing future treatments that might reverse some of the memory loss seen in early-stage Alzheimer’s.

“Lost” memories can be found

Neuroscientists retrieve missing memories in mice with early Alzheimer’s symptoms.

March 16, 2016

The Pirahã reside along the Maici River, which branches off the Amazon in Brazil. MIT researchers are now making public the most extensive data set yet accumulated on the Pirahã language.

Bringing more data to language debate

Larger set of translations may shed light on an idiosyncratic Amazonian language.

March 9, 2016

McGovern Institute for Brain Research awards Scolnick Prize to neurogeneticist Cori Bargmann

Bargmann honored for her work on the genetic and neural mechanisms that control behavior in the nematode C. elegans.

March 1, 2016

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