MIT cognitive scientists reveal why some sentences stand out from others
Sentences that are highly dissimilar from anything we’ve seen before are more likely to be remembered accurately.
A comprehensive cellular-resolution map of brain activity
An international collaboration of neuroscientists, including MIT Professor Ila Fiete, developed a brain-wide map of decision-making at cellular resolution in mice.
New gift expands mental illness studies at Poitras Center for Psychiatric Disorders Research
A commitment from longtime supporters Patricia and James Poitras ’63 initiates multidisciplinary efforts to understand and treat complex psychiatric disorders.
Learning from punishment
A new computational model makes sense of the cognitive processes humans use to evaluate punishment.
How the brain distinguishes oozing fluids from solid objects
A new study finds parts of the brain’s visual cortex are specialized to analyze either solid objects or flowing materials like water or sand.
A bionic knee integrated into tissue can restore natural movement
In a small clinical study, users of this prosthesis navigated more easily and said the limb felt more like part of their body.
Researchers present bold ideas for AI at MIT Generative AI Impact Consortium kickoff event
Presentations targeted high-impact intersections of AI and other areas, such as health care, business, and education.
How the brain solves complicated problems
Study shows humans flexibly deploy different reasoning strategies to tackle challenging mental tasks — offering insights for building machines that think more like us.
How the brain distinguishes between ambiguous hypotheses
Neural activity patterns can encode competing hypotheses about which landmark will lead to the correct destination.
Rationale engineering generates a compact new tool for gene therapy
Researchers redesign a compact RNA-guided enzyme from bacteria, making it an efficient editor of human DNA.
Daily mindfulness practice reduces anxiety for autistic adults
After six weeks of practicing mindfulness with the help of a smartphone app, adults with autism reported lasting improvements in their well-being.
A brief history of expansion microscopy
Since an MIT team introduced expansion microscopy in 2015, the technique has powered the science behind kidney disease, plant seeds, the microbiome, Alzheimer’s, viruses, and more.
MIT’s McGovern Institute is shaping brain science and improving human lives on a global scale
A quarter century after its founding, the McGovern Institute reflects on its discoveries in the areas of neuroscience, neurotechnology, artificial intelligence, brain-body connections, and therapeutics.
A visual pathway in the brain may do more than recognize objects
New research using computational vision models suggests the brain’s “ventral stream” might be more versatile than previously thought.
Looking under the hood at the brain’s language system
Associate Professor Evelina Fedorenko is working to decipher the internal structure and functions of the brain’s language-processing machinery.