Research Topics

As this gallery of featured people and projects illustrates, Picower Institute scientists study brain structure and function at scales from genes and molecules to cells, circuits and regions. They also study the behaviors and cognitive processes that result, and seek to uncover how disruptions at different scales can result in developmental, psychiatric or neurodegenerative disorders. They employ—and often invent—the newest technologies in their work. To learn more about any of these specific areas, click "Research Topics" above, select areas of interest, and you'll find relevant Picower people, discoveries and events.

April 21, 2025

Research Findings

Clinical trial finds several outcomes improved for young children when an anesthesiologist observed their brain waves to guide dosing of sevoflurane during surgery.

April 8, 2025

Research Findings

Upon infection, the C. elegans worm reshuffles the roles of brain cells and flips the functions of some of the chemicals it uses to regulate behavior.

April 7, 2025

Research Findings

New research on a cytokine called IL-17 adds to growing evidence that immune molecules can influence behavior during illness.

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

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.

December 20, 2024

Research Feature

On a biological foundation of ions and proteins, the brain forms, stores, and retrieves memories to inform intelligent behavior

December 10, 2024

Research Findings

Place cells are well known to encode individual locations, but new experiments and analysis indicate that stitching together a “cognitive map” of a whole environment requires a broader ensemble of cells, aided by sleep, to build a richer network over seve

October 7, 2024

Research Findings

New study adds evidence that consciousness requires communication between sensory and cognitive regions of the brain’s cortex

September 23, 2024

Research Findings

New statistical models based on rigorous physiological data from more than 100 surgeries provide objective, accurate measures of “nociception,” the body’s subconscious perception of pain.

September 6, 2024

Research Feature

Studying neuromodulators such as serotonin and norepinephrine could help make them better targets for psychiatric or psychedelic drugs

August 21, 2024

Research Findings

In awake mice, researchers found that even low stimulation currents could sometimes still cause electrographic seizures

August 8, 2024

Research Findings

MIT scientists report that gamma frequency light and sound stimulation preserves myelination in mouse models and reveal molecular mechanisms that may underlie the benefit.

In kids, EEG monitoring of consciousness safely reduces anesthetic use

A simple animal’s response to sickness highlights the nervous system’s surprising degrees of flexibility

Molecules that fight infection also act on the brain, inducing anxiety or sociability

Study suggests new molecular strategy for treating fragile X syndrome

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

From Molecules to Memory

Study suggests how the brain, with sleep, learns meaningful maps of spaces

The way sensory prediction changes under anesthesia tells us how conscious cognition works

Research quantifying “nociception” could help improve management of surgical pain

Better living through brain chemistry

Study assesses seizure risk from stimulating thalamus

Study reveals ways in which 40Hz sensory stimulation may preserve brain’s ‘white matter’