A security guard views a bank of eight monitors on his desk. The perspective of the image is from behind the security guard so that the various parts of a building's interior is visible on the monitors.
October 20, 2025
Like radar, a brain wave sweeps a cortical region to read out information held in working memory
Six panels show circular arrangements of each individual cell type in a miBrain culture, stained in cyan. The cell types are Pericytes, Astrocytes, Endothelial Cells, Neurons, Oligodendroglia, and Microglia
October 17, 2025
MIT invents human brain model with six major cell types to enable personalized disease research, drug discovery
An array of six panels shows different views of a long, thin, spiny structure that closely resembles a bumpy twig. Each is stained bright green and the degree of bumpiness varies along each one.
October 16, 2025
Study finds circular RNA helps drive brain development
Two stacked electron microscope images show a synapse. Above a small, river-like gap is a dark T shape among many tiny bubble-like circles. In the bottom image the T shape is much bigger than in the upper image.
October 14, 2025
Neural activity helps circuit connections mature into optimal signal transmitters
The almond shape of the amygdala is composed of cells stained red (on the left) and green (on the right).
September 29, 2025
Many Mechanisms of Mood

MIT-based team advances to semi-finals of Gates-funded competition to apply ’agentic’ AI to studying Alzheimer’s

October 21, 2025
New Research
“FINGERPRINT,” proposes to use AI to link discovery, prevention, therapy by reasoning across multiple biological and clinical data sets.

Like radar, a brain wave sweeps a cortical region to read out information held in working memory

October 20, 2025
Research Findngs
When spotting what’s changed from one scene to the next, performance will depend on a low-frequency “theta” brain wave that scans the mental image, a new MIT study shows.

MIT invents human brain model with six major cell types to enable personalized disease research, drug discovery

October 17, 2025
Research Findngs
Cultured from induced pluripotent stem cells, ‘miBrains’ integrate all major brain cell types and model brain structures, cellular interactions, activity, and pathological features.

Study finds circular RNA helps drive brain development

October 16, 2025
Research Findngs
MIT neuroscientists show in a new study that loops of RNA can strongly influence how neurons build circuit connections, or synapses, during the development of the visual system in young mice.

Neural activity helps circuit connections mature into optimal signal transmitters

October 14, 2025
Research Findngs
By carefully tracking the formation and maturation of synaptic active zones in fruit flies, MIT scientists have discovered how neural activity helps circuit connections become tuned to the right size and degree of signal transmission

Immune-informed brain aging research offers new treatment possibilities, speakers say

September 29, 2025
Picower Events
Before a packed house, speakers at MIT’s Aging Brain Initiative symposium described how immune system factors during aging contribute to Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other conditions. The field is leveraging that knowledge to develop new therapies

Many Mechanisms of Mood

September 29, 2025
Research Feature
Picower Institute studies reveal a number of ways moods emerge in the brain and therefore many potential paths to address depression, PTSD, anxiety and bipolar disorder.

How the brain splits up vision without you even noticing

September 22, 2025
Research Findngs
As an object moves across your field of view, the brain seamlessly hands off visual processing from one hemisphere to the other like cell phone towers or relay racers do, a new MIT study shows.

Study explains how a rare gene variant contributes to Alzheimer’s disease

September 10, 2025
Research Findngs
Lipid metabolism and cell membrane function can be disrupted in the neurons of people who carry rare variants of ABCA7.

Alzheimer’s erodes brain cells’ control of gene expression, undermining function, cognition

September 2, 2025
Research Findngs
Study of 3.5 million cells from more than 100 human brains finds that Alzheimer’s progression—but also resilience to disease—depends on preserving epigenomic stability.

MIT imaging tech promises deepest looks yet into living brain tissue at single-cell resolution

August 7, 2025
Research Findings
By combining several cutting-edge imaging technologies, a new microscope system could enable unprecedentedly deep and precise visualization of metabolic and neuronal activity, potentially even in humans.

Study finds key role for non-neural brain cells in processing vision

July 22, 2025
Research Findings
MIT researchers employed a novel application of tools and analysis to show that astrocytes ensure neural information processing by maintaining ambient levels of the neurotransmitter chemical GABA.