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.
How some skills become second nature
Patterns of gaze and attention can reveal how some people unconsciously figure out how to master a task, new research shows.
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.
To flexibly organize thought, the brain makes use of space
MIT researchers tested their theory of spatial computing, which holds that the brain recruits and controls ad hoc groups of neurons for cognitive tasks by applying brain waves to patches of the cortex.
At MIT, a continued commitment to understanding intelligence
With support from the Siegel Family Endowment, the newly renamed MIT Siegel Family Quest for Intelligence investigates how brains produce intelligence and how it can be replicated to solve problems.
This new tool could tell us how consciousness works
Researchers propose a roadmap for using transcranial focused ultrasound, a noninvasive way to stimulate the brain and see how it functions.