a cartoon of a brain with cogs and gears
August 17, 2026
Flexible brain circuits can switch between different tasks
Over a tangle of dark blue neurons, bright orange spots appear along the lengths of some of the axons, highlighting their paths through the tangle
August 13, 2026
Brain circuit keeps tabs on what just happened to aid judgement of what’s happening now
Shanshan Zhang and Rosie Firenze stand before a Massachusetts Life Sciences Center backdrop holding and award certificate
July 29, 2026
With Mass. Women’s Health Award, team will study how Alzheimer’s risk varies with hormone replacement
Emery Brown sits behind his desk in his MIT office. A teddy bear rests nestled among some books on a shelf behind him, just over his right shoulder.
July 20, 2026
MIT names Emery N. Brown an "Institute Professor," its highest faculty honor
A portrait of Susumu Tonegawa in front of a gray background
July 15, 2026
Picower Professor Susumu Tonegawa, renowned molecular biologist and Nobel laureate, dies at 86

Emery Brown earns AIMBE’s highest honor

March 25, 2022
Picower People
Pierre Galletti Award recognizes contributions to neural signal processing, anesthesiology advances

Neurons are fickle. Electric fields are more reliable for information.

March 14, 2022
Research Findings
A new study suggests that electric fields may represent information held in working memory, allowing the brain to overcome “representational drift,” or the inconsistent participation of individual neurons

The model remodeler

March 14, 2022
Research Feature
A Picower Institute primer on ‘plasticity,’ the brain’s amazing ability to constantly adapt to and learn from experience

Mriganka Sur elected to the 2022 class of the AIMBE College of Fellows

February 28, 2022
Picower People
National Institute recognizes innovations and research elucidating neuronal plasticity and computations

A new “atlas” of cells that carry blood to the brain

February 14, 2022
Research Findings
Single-cell gene expression analyses of human cerebrovascular cells can help reveal new drug targets for Huntington’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Research advances technology of AI assistance for anesthesiologists

February 2, 2022
Research Findings
A new deep learning algorithm trained to optimize doses of propofol to maintain unconsciousness during general anesthesia could augment patient monitoring

‘Traveling’ nature of brain waves may help working memory work

January 31, 2022
Research Findings
The act of holding information in mind is accompanied by coordination of rotating brain waves in the prefrontal cortex, a new study finds.

Next-generation tissue expansion method improves neural imaging

January 13, 2022
Research Findings
An upgrade of ‘MAP’ enables labeling of more proteins, deeper studies of circuit junctions in brain tissue

In Down syndrome cells, genome-wide disruptions mimic a senescence-like state

January 6, 2022
Research Findings
Extra chromosome alters chromosomal conformation and DNA accessibility across the whole genome in neural progenitor cells, disrupting gene transcription and cell functions much like in cellular aging.

'Risky' Research

December 20, 2021
Research Feature
How bold new neuroscience research projects get off the ground

Research finds potential mechanism linking autism, intestinal inflammation

December 7, 2021
Research Findings
Moms infected during pregnancy who produce elevated levels of the cytokine IL-17a may have microbiome alterations that prime offspring for aberrant immune responses later in life, mouse study suggests

Study reveals a protein’s key contribution to heterogeneity of neurons

November 29, 2021
Research Findings
Tomosyn’s tight regulation of neurotransmitter release distinguishes functions of two neuron classes at the fly neuromuscular junction