Systems Neuroscience

Picower Institute scientists seek to understand the complex circuits and processes that the brain constructs and employs so that we can perceive, learn, think, plan, and feel. 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.

Picower Professor of Neuroscience

The Tsai lab is interested in elucidating the pathogenic mechanisms underlying neurological disorders that impact learning and memory by taking a multidisciplinary approach to investigate the molecular, cellular, and circuit basis of neurodegenerative disorders.

Research Areas

Alzheimer's dementia, Down syndrome, Single Cell Transcriptomics and Epigenomics, iPSCs, Brain Rhythms, Neuroimmune interactions, myelination, ApoE, lipid metabolism, Neuronal DNA damage

Doherty Assistant Professor of Biology

Brady Weissbourd uses jellyfish to study nervous system evolution, development, regeneration, and function.

Research Areas

Evolution, neural systems, Internal states, neuromodulation, development, Single Cell Transcriptomics and Epigenomics

Sherman Fairchild Professor in Neurobiology

Research in the Wilson laboratory focuses on the study of information representation across large populations of neurons in the mammalian nervous system, as well as on the mechanisms that underlie formation and maintenance of distributed memories, and the role of sleep in memory.

Research Areas

hippocampus, place cells, LFP, oscillations, functional connectivity, synchronization, replay, reverse replay

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

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

January 14, 2026

Research Findings

A new MIT study finds that somatostatin-expressing neurons follow a unique trajectory when forming connections in the brain’s visual cortex that may help establish the conditions needed for sensory experience to refine circuits.

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

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 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 19, 2025

Research Findngs

Temporarily anesthetizing the retina briefly reverts the activity of the visual system to that observed in early development and enables growth of responses to the amblyopic eye, new research shows

November 3, 2025

New Research

Assistant Professor Sara Prescott and Research Affiliate Ravikiran Raju are key collaborators in a new Broad Institute research project to better understand physiological and medical effects of acute and chronic life stressors.

November 3, 2025

Research Findngs

To get back on track after a distraction, the cortex appears to employ a rotating traveling wave, a new study by MIT neuroscientists finds.

Li-Huei Tsai

Brady Weissbourd

Matthew Wilson

With navigating nematodes, scientists map out how brains implement behaviors

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

How a unique class of neurons may set the table for brain development

To flexibly organize thought, the brain makes use of space

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

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

MIT study shows how vision can be rebooted in adults with amblyopia

Q&A: Picower researchers join effort to investigate the ‘Biology of Adversity’

After distractions, rotating brain waves may help thought circle back to the task