MIT scientists learn how to control muscles with light
A new study suggests optogenetics can drive muscle contraction with greater control and less fatigue than electrical stimulation.
Epigenomic analysis sheds light on risk factors for ALS
In a study of cells from nearly 400 ALS patients, researchers identified genomic regions with chemical modifications linked to disease progression.
To understand cognition — and its dysfunction — neuroscientists must learn its rhythms
A new framework describes how thought arises from the coordination of neural activity driven by oscillating electric fields — a.k.a. brain “waves” or “rhythms.”
Three from MIT awarded 2024 Guggenheim Fellowships
MIT professors Roger Levy, Tracy Slatyer, and Martin Wainwright appointed to the 2024 class of “trail-blazing fellows.”
Mapping the brain pathways of visual memorability
For the first time, researchers use a combination of MEG and fMRI to map the spatio-temporal human brain dynamics of a visual image being recognized.
From neurons to learning and memory
Mark Harnett investigates how electrical activity in mammalian cortical cells helps to produce neural computations that give rise to behavior.
Reevaluating an approach to functional brain imaging
An MRI method purported to detect neurons’ rapid impulses produces its own misleading signals instead, an MIT study finds.
Study: Movement disorder ALS and cognitive disorder FTLD show strong molecular overlaps
Single-cell gene expression patterns in the brain, and evidence from follow-up experiments, reveal many shared cellular and molecular similarities that could be targeted for potential treatment.
For people who speak many languages, there’s something special about their native tongue
An MIT study finds the brains of polyglots expend comparatively little effort when processing their native language.
How sensory gamma rhythm stimulation clears amyloid in Alzheimer’s mice
Study finds stimulating a key brain rhythm with light and sound increases peptide release from interneurons, driving clearance of an Alzheimer’s protein.
Deciphering the cellular mechanisms behind ALS
Professor Ernest Fraenkel has decoded fundamental aspects of Huntington’s disease and glioblastoma, and is now using computation to better understand amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
How cognition changes before dementia hits
Study finds language-processing difficulties are an indicator — in addition to memory loss — of amnestic mild cognitive impairment.
Simons Center’s collaborative approach propels autism research, at MIT and beyond
Team-based targeted projects, multi-mentor fellowships ensure that scientists studying social cognition, behavior, and autism integrate multiple perspectives and approaches to pressing questions.
Creating new skills and new connections with MIT’s Quantitative Methods Workshop
More than 80 students and faculty from a dozen collaborating institutions became immersed at the intersection of computation and life sciences and forged new ties to MIT and each other.
Professor Emeritus Peter Schiller, a pioneer researcher of the visual system, dies at 92
His wide-ranging and influential career included fundamental discoveries about how visual scenes and stimuli are processed from the retina through the cortical visual system.