Cognition and Motivation

Picower Institute scientists study behaviors and cognitive processes including learning, memory, emotion, reasoning and consciousness. To learn more about these or other areas of inquiry, select them under Research Topics and you'll find relevant Picower people, discoveries and events.

April 13, 2026

Research Findings

Challenging the classic view, two cognitive scientists argue in a new review that categorization is not a late, specialized stage of sensory processing. Instead, it is a core function operating at every level, anticipating bodily needs and motor plans.

April 10, 2026

Research Findings

How do nervous systems produce behaviors? A new MIT study provides a detailed mechanistic mapping of exactly what happens in the brains of C. elegans worms when they “follow their nose” to savor attractive odors or avoid unappealing ones

March 23, 2026

Research Feature

Picower Institute researchers and collaborators are inventing versatile new models of the brain to accelerate neuroscience discoveries and biomedical advances.

March 17, 2026

Research Findings

Discovering this common mechanism could lead to a universal anesthesia-delivery system to monitor patients more effectively.

March 11, 2026

Picower People

Tsai, who has grown the MIT neuroscience institute, will increase focus on research including Alzheimer’s disease and Down syndrome

February 17, 2026

Picower People

Linlin Fan uses innovative optical tools to precisely investigate how connections change among neurons during memory formation. With Sloan Foundation support, she plans to give the technology a significant upgrade

February 6, 2026

Research Findings

Filled with vitally important neural fibers, the brainstem has been hard for brain imaging technologies to dissect. New software reliably and finely resolves eight distinct nerve bundles in live diffusion MRI scans, revealing signs of injury or disease

December 29, 2025

Research Findngs

A new ‘biomimetic’ model of brain circuits and function at multiple scales produced naturalistic dynamics and learning, and even identified curious behavior by some neurons that had gone unnoticed in real-brain data.

December 22, 2025

Research Findngs

In a new study, MIT researchers tested their theory of Spatial Computing, which holds that the brain recruits and controls ad hoc groups of neurons for cognitive tasks by applying brain waves to patches of the cortex.

November 25, 2025

Research Findngs

A new MIT study illustrates how areas within the brain’s executive control center tailor their messages in specific circuits with other brain regions to influence them with information about behavior and internal feelings.

November 25, 2025

Research Findngs

MIT researchers have discovered how an immune system molecule triggers neurons in a specific brain circuit to shut down social behavior in mice modeling infection.

November 15, 2025

Picower People

On neuroscience’s big stage Nov. 15, MIT Professor Earl K. Miller proposed that thought and consciousness emerge from the fast and flexible organization of the cortex produced by the analog computations of brain waves.

A complete rethinking of how our brains use categories to make sense of the world

With navigating nematodes, scientists map out how brains implement behaviors

Brain Simulation

Three anesthesia drugs all have the same effect in the brain, MIT researchers find

After 16+ years leading Picower Institute, Li-Huei Tsai will sharpen focus on research, teaching

Sloan Fellowship will help Fan advance technology to study how brain circuits change amid learning

Opening a new window on the brainstem, AI algorithm enables tracking of its vital white matter pathways

Biology-based brain model matches animals in learning, enables new discovery

To flexibly organize thought, the brain makes use of space

Prefrontal cortex reaches back into the brain to shape how other regions function

Too sick to socialize: How the brain and immune system promote staying in bed

Brain waves’ analog organization of cortex enables cognition and consciousness, MIT professor proposes at SfN