Ila Fiete wins Swartz Prize for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience
Society for Neuroscience honors BCS professor for breakthrough research modeling a component of the brain’s navigational system.
Celebrating 20 years of discovery, Picower Institute looks ahead to continuing impact
At an exhibition marking two decades since a transformative gift from the Picower Foundation, current and alumni members described research at the forefront of neuroscience and beyond.
With fractured genomes, Alzheimer’s neurons call for help
Study indicates ailing neurons may instigate an inflammatory response from the brain’s microglia immune cells.
A “golden era” to study the brain
“We can’t think of the brain only as neurons,” says PhD student Mitch Murdock, who explores the cellular basis of Alzheimer’s disease.
How the brain focuses on what’s in mind
When holding information in mind, neural activity is more focused when and where there are bursts of gamma frequency rhythms.
When Alzheimer’s degrades cells that cross hemispheres, visual memory suffers
Research reveals cells that span brain hemispheres to coordinate activity in visual processing centers, shows Alzheimer’s degrades their structure and function.
New findings reveal how neurons build and maintain their capacity to communicate
Nerve cells regulate and routinely refresh the collection of calcium channels that enable them to send messages across circuit connections.
How the brain responds to surprising events
Unexpected outcomes trigger release of noradrenaline, which helps the brain focus its attention and learn from the event.
A brain circuit in the thalamus helps us hold information in mind
This circuit, which weakens with age, could offer a target to help prevent age-related decline in spatial memory.
A single memory is stored across many connected brain regions
Innovative brain-wide mapping study shows that an “engram,” the ensemble of neurons encoding a memory, is widely distributed and includes regions not previously realized.
Neurons are fickle. Electric fields are more reliable for information.
Electric fields may represent information held in working memory, allowing the brain to overcome “representational drift,” or the inconsistent participation of individual neurons.
“Traveling” nature of brain waves may help working memory work
The act of holding information in mind is accompanied by coordination of rotating brain waves in the prefrontal cortex, a phenomenon that may convey specific advantages, a new study suggests.
Study links gene to cognitive resilience in the elderly
The findings may help explain why some people who lead enriching lives are less prone to Alzheimer’s and age-related dementia.
New integrative computational neuroscience center established at MIT’s McGovern Institute
The K. Lisa Yang Integrative Computational Neuroscience (ICoN) Center will use mathematical tools to transform data into a deep understanding of the brain.
Brain’s “memory center” is needed to recognize image sequences, but not single sights
The visual cortex stores and remembers individual images, but mice can’t recognize image sequences without guidance from the hippocampus.