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

Symposium highlights numerous leads to combat neurodegeneration

September 24, 2020
Recent Events
In 10 talks, leading neuroscientists shared potential advances against Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and other diseases

Picower researcher earns BBRF Young Investigator grant

September 21, 2020
Picower People
Sur Lab postdoc Vincent Breton-Provencher will use award to study neurobiology underlying attention

From Biological Intelligence to Artificial Intelligence

September 17, 2020
Research Feature
How basic neuroscience research by Picower faculty has mattered to AI

Live imaging method brings structural information to mapping of brain function

September 17, 2020
Research Findings
Scientists distinguish brain regions based on what they do, but now have a new way to overlay information about how they are built

As information flows through brain’s heirarchy, higher regions use higher frequency waves

September 8, 2020
Research Findings
Study also finds specific frequency bands associated with encoding, or inhibiting encoding, of sensory information across the cortex

New trial to test brain wave stimulation as Alzheimer’s preventative

August 25, 2020
New Research
MIT, MGH join forces to test whether ‘GENUS’ stimulation of 40Hz rhythms can reduce disease pathology before onset of symptoms

Math shows how brain stays stable amid internal noise and a widely varying world

August 10, 2020
Research Findings
Theoretical framework shows that many properties of neural connections help biological circuits produce consistent computations

To distinguish contexts, animals think probabilistically, study suggests

August 3, 2020
Research Findings
A new statistical model may help scientists understand how animals make inferences about whether their surroundings are novel or haven’t changed enough to be a new context

Neural vulnerability in Huntington’s disease tied to release of mitochondrial RNA

July 17, 2020
Research Findings
Unique survey of gene expression by cell type in humans and mice reveals several deficits affecting the most vulnerable neurons

Seemingly similar, two neurons show distinct styles as they interact with the same muscle partner

July 7, 2020
Research Findings
Diversity in how cells talk to the muscle they innervate reveal distinct propensities for change, or “plasticity”

Findings weaken notion that size equals strength for neural connections

June 30, 2020
Research Findings
Among study’s many surprises may be a new way to address Fragile X syndrome – by finding a “Protein X”

The story behind the science: How discovery develops

June 25, 2020
News Feature
An inside look at a key paper illustrates what it can take to publish new knowledge