Inside Higher Ed reporter Colleen Flaherty writes that researchers from MIT and around the world are publicly defending the late Prof. Suzanne Corkin’s work with patient H.M. in response to a highly critical publication. When “so many scholars rise to defend the reputation of a deceased colleague,” says Arthur Caplan, head of NYU’s Division of Bioethics, “that speaks volumes both about her and the problems that exist in the book.”
Prof. Emerita Suzanne Corkin, whose work with a famous amnesia patient was instrumental in uncovering the nature of memory, died on May 24, reports Benedict Carey for The New York Times. Carey writes that Corkin’s work “helped settle a debate about the function of the hippocampus in retrieving and reliving past experiences.”
Prof. Earl Miller speaks with Meghna Chakrabarti, host of Radio Boston, about the dangers of distracted driving. Miller explains that our brains “have a very limited capacity for simultaneous thought.” He adds that people have a hard time ignoring their phones while driving because the “brain evolved to find new information rewarding.”
Helen Shen writes for Nature that MIT researchers have developed a technique for assembling and operating an automated system for “whole-cell patch-clamping”, a method of monitoring the activity of brain cells. “Our hope is that we can help as many people as possible to answer questions about how neurons compute,” explains Prof. Edward Boyden.
MIT researchers have found a possible link between attention deficit disorders and autism, reports Lindsay Kalter for The Boston Herald. “One of the long-term goals is gene therapy where we can actually introduce genetic material that might be missing from the human,” explains grad. student Michael Wells.
Popular Science reporter Claire Maldarelli writes that researchers from MIT have identified how sensory overload occurs for people with neurodevelopmental disorders. Based off their findings, the researchers hope they can "classify these disorders in a better way, but also develop therapies that alleviate or diminish the symptoms.”
MIT researchers have shown that memories can be restored using optogenetics, findings that could help treat Alzheimer’s. According to The Economist, the findings provide evidence “about how memories are lost during the early stages of the disease and may point to how…those memories might be brought back.”
A new study conducted by MIT researchers suggests that optogenetics could one day be used to help stimulate lost memories in Alzheimer’s patients, reports Ashley Welch for CBS News. Walsh writes that the researchers have “found evidence that ‘lost’ memories may just be inaccessible, with the potential to be retrieved.”
In an article posted by Scientific American, Sara Reardon writes that MIT researchers have shown that patients with Alzheimer’s can still form new memories and that lost memories could potentially be recalled using optogenetics. The findings “may allow more targeted stimulation, especially once researchers understand what happens to memories after they leave the hippocampus.”
Huffington Post reporter Ann Brenoff writes about a new MIT study that finds that Alzheimer’s patients may one day be able to recover lost memories using optogenetics. “The findings raise the hope — and possibility — that future treatments might indeed reverse some of the memory loss in early-stage Alzheimer’s patients.”
Washington Post reporter Ariana Eunjung Cha writes that MIT researchers have found evidence that memories lost due to Alzheimer’s disease could potentially be recalled using optogenetics. Cha writes that the research “raises the hope of future treatments that could reverse some of the ravages of the disease on memory.”
CBS Boston reports on a new study by MIT researchers that shows that memories lost due to Alzheimer’s disease may be recovered. The research shows “that while it may be hard for people with early Alzheimer’s to access memories, they are still retrievable.”
MIT researchers have found that cell stimulation may one day be a tool in helping Alzheimer’s patients recall lost memories, according to The Guardian. The findings raise “the possibility of future treatments that reverse memory loss in early stages of the disease.”
A study by MIT researchers illustrates how the brain responds to music, writes Jill Suttie for The Huffington Post. "You want to know what is it about bluegrass music that makes it sound like bluegrass? We think that finding this neural population will help us to answer that question going forward,” explains postdoc Sam Norman-Haignere.
Prof. Edward Boyden speaks with STAT about winning the Breakthrough Prize and his research at MIT. Boyden explains that the technique he developed to examine brain samples is being applied to “bacteria, cancer, biopsies, virology questions. There’s a huge pent-up demand for ways of seeing large objects with nanoscale precision.”