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Cognition and Motivation
Systems Neuroscience
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Neurotechnology

Memory Systems

Memories can be of many types (e.g. places or faces), operate on different timeframes (long- or short-term), and be stored and recalled through distinct processes involving multiple brain regions. The subject of intense interest across the Picower Institute, memory systems are studied widely and in depth.  

Visual System

Perhaps the most prized of our senses, the visual system has long provided neuroscientists a model for studying neural plasticity and development and cortical dynamics. It also is a system in which disorders can produce devastating disabilities. At the Picower Institute, scientists study this system to gain broad insights into the brain and also to address societal needs.

Neuro Genomics and Proteomics

Fundamentally the central nervous system is made up of cells whose functions are specified by which genes are expressed, and how and when.  At the Picower Institute, scientists use “big data” and bio-informatics techniques to make new discoveries about how genes and the proteins that arise from their expression influence brain function and how abnormalities contribute to disease.

Brain Imaging

In many ways, Picower Institute neuroscientists are explorers for whom new ways to see inside the brain are essential for finding answers to their questions about how the brain works at scales ranging from synapses to whole networks. Researchers at the institute doesn’t just apply the latest imaging techniques, it often creates new technologies to make imaging better.

Gloria Choi earns Samsung Ho-Am Prize for Medicine

April 2, 2025
Picower People
Honor recognizes Choi’s research on connections between the immune and central nervous systems and their relevance to autism and other disorders

A neuron’s neighbors

March 14, 2025
Research Feature
The field is called neuroscience, but neurons alone can’t operate your brain. Research is revealing how non-neural cells indispensably contribute to function, and why their roles can make them promising treatment targets in disease.

Review: Evidence expanding that 40Hz gamma stimulation promotes brain health

March 3, 2025
A decade of studies from labs around the world provide a growing evidence base that increasing the power of the brain’s gamma rhythms could help fight Alzheimer’s, and perhaps other, neurological diseases.

Study suggests new molecular strategy for treating fragile X syndrome

February 20, 2025
Research Findings
Enhancing activity of a specific component of ‘NMDA’ receptors normalized protein synthesis, neural activity and seizure susceptibility in hippocampus of fragile X lab mice

Even after learning the right idea, humans and animals still seem to test other approaches, study suggests

February 18, 2025
Research Findings
New research adds evidence that learning a successful strategy for approaching a task doesn’t prevent further exploration, even if it reduces performance.

MIT method enables ultrafast protein labeling of tens of millions of densely packed cells in organ-scale tissues

January 24, 2025
Research Findings
Tissue processing advance can label proteins at the level of individual cells across whole, intact rodent brains and other large samples just as fast and uniformly as in dissociated single cells.

Emery N. Brown, innovative neuroscientist, statistician and anesthesiologist earns National Medal of Science

January 3, 2025
Picower People
President Biden bestowed the nation’s highest scientific honor on Brown, fellow winners, at a White House ceremony.

From Molecules to Memory

December 20, 2024
Research Feature
On a biological foundation of ions and proteins, the brain forms, stores, and retrieves memories to inform intelligent behavior