Diana Grass: Listening to the body’s languageGrowing up in Colombia, Diana Grass had a simple response whenever someone told her something was impossible.“I’ll figure it out.”It’s a phrase that she still lives by today as PhD candidate in the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology …
Electric fields help guide neural activity, even from moment to momentIt’s a fact of life that the electrical activity of neurons will vary during repetitions of the same task, even when the ultimate outcome is the same. A new study shows that a lot of ongoing fluctuations in the brain’s …
How visual learning happens in the brainThe wiring and rewiring of the brain never ends. Neural pathways are constantly being reshaped as we interact with the world and learn new things. At MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research and York University in Toronto, Ontario, scientists are …
Separating logic and languageSome people find it useful to talk through their problems — but language isn’t necessary for logical reasoning, cognitive neuroscientists at MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research say. In research published this week in the journal PNAS, researchers led by MIT …
The brain’s internal rulerIf you are crossing an unfamiliar room in the dark, you may grope around a bit to get a sense of your space.But for many animals, feeling out a space comes more naturally. A mouse, for instance, can efficiently navigate …
Toward a future that preserves benefits of neurotechnology for allAs advanced medical technology gets closer to hitting consumer markets, the need for guardrails on protected usage should increase. What might begin as a neural implant to aid in communication could become a device used to police one’s innermost thoughts.Intrigued …
The brain’s language network is more extensive than previously thoughtFor decades, neuroscientists have known that specific regions in the brain’s left hemisphere are responsible for processing language. However, a new study by MIT researchers shows that language processing also occurs in many other parts of the brain.Using functional magnetic …
Would you return a favor? Scientists say it depends on the relationshipWhen a friend buys you a cup of coffee, it’s likely that next time, you’ll return the gesture. This type of reciprocal generosity has been well-documented in behavioral economic studies.However, anthropologists and other social scientists have known for decades that …
Myriam Heiman named director of The Picower Institute for Learning and MemoryMyriam Heiman, the John and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Neuroscience at MIT, will become the director of MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, effective July 1. She succeeds Picower Professor Li-Huei Tsai, who is stepping down after leading the institute …
Brighter MRI signalsWhen doctors and scientists want to see inside a body, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a powerful tool. MRI can noninvasively capture detailed images of the body’s muscles, organs, and bones. It can monitor blood flow to generate a map …
The rules neurons follow to make sense of what we seeEven in the primary visual cortex, a brain region named for its specialized role in processing basic features of what the eyes see, not every neuron ends up answering the call to process properties of visual input. Maybe that’s because …
MIT affiliates elected to National Academy of Sciences for 2026The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has elected 120 members and 25 international members for 2026, including six MIT faculty members and 10 additional alumni. Among MIT professors, Bengt Holmström, Michale Fee, Gareth McKinley ’91, Keith Nelson, Fan Wang, and Catherine …
Four from MIT named 2026 Searle ScholarsMIT scientists Sven Dorkenwald and Whitney Henry have been named 2026 Searle Scholars, an award given annually to 15 exceptional early-career researchers in the fields of biomedical sciences and chemistry. Dorkenwald is an assistant professor of brain and cognitive sciences and an investigator …
Language development in the brainThe brain’s capacity to use and understand language expands rapidly in the first years of life, as babies start to make sense of the words they hear and eventually begin to piece together sentences of their own. The language-processing parts …
Powerful shrinking technique could enable devices that compute with lightUsing a new technique that can create vacancies at any site across a material and then shrink it to about 1/2,000 of its original volume, MIT researchers have designed nanotechnology devices that could be used for optical computing and other applications involving the manipulation of …
Solving hard problems in soft electronicsA crepe cake.That’s how Camille Cunin describes the polymer-metal “sandwiches” that became a highlight of her doctoral thesis at MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE). Over close to five years, these composites were a key component of her …
Rethinking how our brains use categories to make sense of the worldIn the new review article, “Categorization is Baked into the Brain,” cognitive scientists Earl K. Miller, Picower Professor of Neuroscience at MIT, and Lisa Feldman Barrett, university distinguished professor at Northeastern University, contend that categorization is part of a predictive …
MIT BrainTrust supports neighbors living with brain injuriesSince 1998, members of MIT’s BrainTrust club have helped Boston-area residents with brain injuries or other neurological disorders through their buddy program. The organization’s members also visit patients in nursing homes suffering from neurological issues.BrainTrust is one of the founding …
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