McGovern Institute

MIT researchers found that unless an individual is affected by stroke or dementia, their ability to process language does not decline with age, writes Health Day’s Dennis Thompson. “Scans show that activity in the brain’s language processing network is nearly identical among seniors to that found in younger adults,” writes Thompson. “These results indicate that parts of the brain dedicated to unique functions like language might be less prone to age-related decline than general-purpose networks that contribute to many different skills.”  

By analyzing brain scans from 772 people, MIT researchers have identified 17 additional language-responsive regions in the brain, reports The Dallas Express (DX). “For decades, scientists have focused on regions such as Broca’s area and areas of the left frontal and temporal lobes as the brain’s primary language-processing centers,” writes DX. “The new study found that language-responsive regions are also located in other parts of the brain, including the cerebellum, hippocampus, amygdala, medial frontal cortex, and temporal lobe.”  

For Scientific American’s special section “The Young American Scientists,” Prof. Feng Zhang speaks with Tara Haelle about the importance of investing in science and education, noting that “American science has long been the strongest engine of discovery and innovation in the world.” Zhang shares: “I’m fortunate to work with extraordinary students and postdocs, but the infrastructure that lets them do their best work is under real stress: funding instability..., immigration uncertainty for international scientists and an erosion of public trust in expertise. We can lose the lead rapidly if we do not protect our innovation ecosystem.” 

Forbes contributor Michael T. Nietzel spotlights the 120 new members and 25 international members elected by the National Academy of Sciences for 2026. Several MIT faculty members – including Professors Michale Fee, Gareth McKinley, Keith Nelson, Bengt Holmstrom and Catherine Wolfram – were selected. 

Prof. Rebecca Saxe speaks with GBH’s Morning Edition host Mark Herz about the importance of maintaining social commitments. “People who have community and social relationships have better physical and mental health,” explains Saxe. “It actually helps with mortality. You live longer if you have strong social relationships.” 

Prof. Hugh Herr speaks with Bloomberg Businessweek Daily host Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec about his work creating bionic limbs that combine human physiology with electromechanics. “I really realized how limited the current prosthetic technology was and I dedicated my life as a young man to really advance the field and enable extraordinary technology that will allow people to do what they want again, to move again and have the bodies that they seek," says Herr. 

Postdoctoral Fellow Halie Olson has been named to The Transmitter’s Rising Stars of Neuroscience, reports Francisco J. Rivera Rosario and Lauren Schneider for The Transmitter. The award “recognizes early-career researchers who have made outstanding scientific contributions to the field and demonstrated a commitment to mentoring and community-building.” 

Researchers at MIT have developed a “tissue-integrated, above-the-knee prosthesis that gives people more control over their movements,” reports Amber X. Chen for Smithsonian Magazine.  “I want to be in the business of building bodies, not powerful devices,” says Prof. Hugh Herr. “I want to fully integrate humanity into electromechanics, not just build a better hammer.” 

A new study by MIT researchers has “identified the parts of the brain’s visual cortex that respond more when we look at things (rigid objects like a stone skipping or a bouncing ball) vs stuff (liquids or something more granular like sand). Understanding this distinction may help our brains better plan how to interact with various materials,” explains Lauren Baisas for Popular Science. “Understanding this distinction may help our brains better plan how to interact with various materials,” explains Baisas. 

MIT researchers have developed a bionic knee that “allows amputees to walk faster, climb stairs more easily, and adroitly avoid obstacles,” reports Dennis Thompson for HealthDay. “The new prothesis is directly integrated with the person’s muscle and bone tissue, enabling greater stability and providing more control over its movement,” Thompson explains. 

Researchers at MIT have developed a bionic knee that can “integrate with a patient’s bones and nervous system, allowing users to control the prosthesis with their mind,” reports Angela Mathew for The Boston Globe. “In conventional prosthesis, there’s an energy exchange, but there’s not much of an information exchange with the brain,” explains Prof. Hugh Herr. “Because the prosthesis is so intimately connected to the skeleton, if you just tap the toe in a really modest way, the person can feel it exquisitely.”  

Research Scientist Robert Ajemian speaks with National Geographic reporter Erika Engelhaupt about loci, an ancient technique that “transforms any familiar space into a storage system for new information.” “It’s shocking to me that this is so understudied when this was the dominant form of information storage for literally all of civilization, until the printing press,” says Ajemian.  

A study by Prof. Rebecca Saxe and her colleagues has found that the medial prefrontal cortex in infants is active when exposed to faces, reports Elizabeth Hlavinka for Salon. “Maybe it’s not that [at] first babies do visual processing and only later are connected to social meaning,” says Saxe. “Maybe these brain regions are active because babies are responding to the social meaning of people and faces as early on as we can measure their brains.”

MIT has multiple projects represented in this year’s STAT Madness, a bracket-style competition “highlighting important scientific advances emerging from labs at the nation’s universities, medical schools, and other U.S. research institutions and companies,” reports STAT staff.

Prof. Ed Boyden and Prof. Li-Huei Tsai have “found that if gamma waves through non-invasive stimulation, were put back into baseline frequency, it could slow down the process in certain brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s,” reports Hansa Bhargava for Forbes.