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.

September 3, 2021

Research Findings

Neuroscientists at MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital have developed a statistical framework that rigorously describes the brain state changes that patients experience under ketamine-induced anesthesia.

July 26, 2021

Research Findings

The visual cortex stores and remembers individual images, but when they are grouped into a sequence, mice can’t recognize that without guidance from the hippocampus

July 23, 2021

New Research

Long thought of as a generic alarm system, the locus coeruleus may actually be a sophisticated regulator of learning and behavior, an MIT team posits

July 6, 2021

Research Findings

To quickly express genes needed for learning and memory, brain cells snap both strands of DNA in many more places and cell types than previously realized, a new study shows

June 8, 2021

Research Findings

As ‘visual recognition memory’ emerges in visual cortex, one circuit of inhibitory neurons supplants another and slower neural oscillations prevail

May 6, 2021

Research Findings

Machine learning software advances could help anesthesiologists optimize drug dose

April 27, 2021

Research Findings

Simultaneous measurement of neural rhythms and spikes across five brain areas in animals reveals how propofol induces unconsciousness

March 31, 2021

Research Findings

MIT neuroscientists have identified a brain circuit that stops mice from mating with others that appear to be sick

March 10, 2021

Picower People

Our first ever census of alumni and former research staff shows a thriving community that spans the globe and many different roles

March 4, 2021

New Research

With a new grant from the U.S. Army, a team of scientists will seek to enhance artificial intelligence by integrating brain cells called astrocytes

February 16, 2021

Picower People

Award supports fundamental research on how the brain generates internal states that guide animal behavior

February 8, 2021

Research Findings

New study explains how the brain helps us remember what we’ve seen, even as it shifts around in our visual system

Statistical model defines ketamine anesthesia’s effects on the brain

Brain’s ‘memory center’ needed to recognize image sequences but not single sights

Grant to help scientists test whether brain region is a key locus of learning

Memory making involves extensive DNA breaking

As novel sights become familiar, different brain rhythms, neurons take over

New algorithms show accuracy, reliability in gauging unconsciousness under general anesthesia

Anesthesia doesn't simply turn off the brain, it changes its rhythms

Mice naturally engage in physical distancing, study finds

Bigger than a Building

Neural networks need more than neurons, new project posits

Steven Flavell earns Sloan Research Fellowship

As you look around, mental images bounce between right and left brain