Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg are donating $30 million to an MIT and Harvard initiative to improve child literacy. Reach Every Reader, which will be funded for five years, “will combine scientific research with new methods of tracking and predicting students’ reading abilities,” writes Jordan Graham for The Boston Herald.
Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan are donating $30 million to Reach Every Reader, an MIT and Harvard initiative that aims to tackle low elementary school literacy rates. Students younger than third grade will be the focus as “early intervention can have the most profound effect on turning students into proficient readers,” writes James Vaznis for The Boston Globe.
Prof. John Gabrieli writes about new research that uses brain scans to predict who will be receptive to certain therapies for mental illness. "Brain scans to tailor treatments embody a new form of personalized medicine, an approach that often relies on customizing therapies based on an individual's genetics," Gabrieli writes for Scientific American.
Prof. Li-Huei Tsai found that use of a small flickering light could prevent plaque-forming proteins in the brains of mice - a practice that has potential to combat Alzheimer’s disease. “The work offers the possibility of forestalling or even reversing the damage caused by such conditions without using a drug,” writes Helen Thomson for Nature.
Researchers have found a way to reactivate the gene that causes fragile X syndrome, the most common inherited form of intellectual impairment. “The team used an emerging technique called “epigene-editing”,” writes Alice Klein for New Scientist, which is reversible. “That means any off-target effects could be fixed and wouldn’t be passed to future generations.”
A study by MIT scientists has identified the neurons that fire at the beginning and end of activities, which is important for initiating a routine. “This task-bracketing appears to be important for initiating a routine and then notifying the brain once it is complete,” Prof. Ann Graybiel told Xinhua.
Professor John Gabrieli and graduate student Rachel Romeo speak with WBUR’s Carey Goldberg about their new research. "What we found is, the more often parents engaged in back-and-forth conversation with their child, the stronger was the brain response in the front of the brain to language," Gabrieli explains.
In an article for Wired, Prof. James J. DiCarlo explains how artificial intelligence can transcend algorithm-based decision making by reverse-engineering the brain. “Armed with an engineering description of the brain, scientists will see new ways to repair, educate, and augment our own minds,” writes DiCarlo.
Boston Herald reporter Lindsay Kalter writes that a team of MIT researchers has developed a new technique that can deliver medication to specific regions of the brain with extreme precision. “The whole idea here is that instead of treating the entire brain, you can treat small portions of the brain,” explains Prof. Michael Cima.
AP reporter Lauran Neergaard writes that MIT researchers have developed a hair-thin implant that can deliver medications to specific regions of the brain. Neergaard writes that the device, “could mark a new approach to treating brain diseases — potentially reducing side effects by targeting only the hard-to-reach circuits that need care.”
In a Boston Globe Magazine article about bioelectronic medicine, writer Jessie Scanlon highlights research by Profs. Ed Boyden and Daniela Rus. Boyden notes that by creating light-sensitive molecules, which can be switched on and off and inserted into neurons, “groups in academia and industry are using the tool to discover patterns of neural activity.”
Newsweek reporter Joseph Frankel writes that MIT researchers have found that the brain relies on a network of neurons to keep track of time. The researchers found that, “neurons appear to fire in a similar pattern, whether operating at fast or slow speeds...But interestingly, the same patterns stretch or compress over time, depending on the rate of the task.”
MIT researchers have found that a network of neurons compress or stretch their activity in order to control the brain’s timing, reports Alyssa Meyers for The Boston Globe. “Instead of passively waiting for a clock to reach a certain point, the team found the system of neurons changes its state independently based on the action being performed.”
Boston Magazine reporter Jamie Ducharme spotlights Prof. Li-Huei Tsai’s quest to vanquish Alzheimer’s disease. Ducharme writes that Tsai’s work, including two recent papers outlining potential treatments for Alzheimer’s, “established her as a bona fide rock star in the neuroscience world.”
A new study by MIT researchers shows how stress can lead people to make risky decisions, reports Kristin Hugo for Newsweek. “The study lends insights into how neurological disorders affect people. It could be the stress of dealing with inabilities to function properly and staving off cravings, compounded with the chemical effects on the brain, that are influencing people’s uninhibited behavior.”