New theory! The brain's ability to generate cognition and consciousness arises from analog computations carried out by electrical waves. Review in JNeurosci led by @earlkmiller.bsky.social : picower.mit.edu/news/cogniti... #neuroscience

Cognition and consciousness arise from analog computations, says new theory

The brain's ability to generate quick, nimble volitional thought—and a unified awareness of thought and experience—arises from analog computations carried out by electrical waves, MIT neuroscientists ...

picower.mit.edu

Flexible brain circuits can switch between different tasks. Neuroscientists have discovered circuits in the prefrontal cortex that can be repurposed to store different types of information. picower.mit.edu/news/flexibl... #neuroscience

High-speed microscopy reveals electrical activity across the brain. New technique, demonstrated in Zebrafish, could help scientists learn how the entire brain works as a whole. picower.mit.edu/news/high-sp... #neuroscience

“The brain does not evaluate each new event from scratch." picower.mit.edu/news/brain-c...

Brain circuit keeps tabs on what just happened to aid judgement of what’s happening now

With the tough job of trying to keep track of what’s going on in front of it, the brain relies not only on what it sees, but also a comparison with what it just saw. A new study in mice pinpoints the ...

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Every year, undergrads from across the country visit MIT labs, including ours, to gain research experience. Learn more about the MSRP-Bio program through the lens of two students' experiences in the lab of @jtroylittleton.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpia... #neuroscience #stem

Summer research in MSRP-Bio

YouTube video by The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory

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Congratulations to Emery N. Brown on earning an honorary doctorate from University of Coruna (Galicia, Spain) honoring his research on anesthesia and the brain! udc.gal/gl/novas/Mar... #neuroscience

With Mass. Women’s Health Award, team will study how Alzheimer’s risk varies with hormone replacement picower.mit.edu/news/mass-wo... #Alzheimers #WomensHealth

Congratulations to Emery N. Brown on being named an Institute Professor at MIT. It's MIT's highest faculty honor! picower.mit.edu/news/mit-nam... @mitbcs.bsky.social

MIT names Emery N. Brown an "Institute Professor," its highest faculty honor

Brown, a renowned neuroscientist, anesthesiologist and statistician, has made numerous seminal contributions to basic science and clinical care alike. He joins two other professors in earning the hono...

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We are heartbroken to have lost our founder, who provided so much inspiration, but we are all honored to carry on the science he loved so much. picower.mit.edu/news/picower... #neuroscience #biology

Picower Professor Susumu Tonegawa, renowned molecular biologist and Nobel laureate, dies at 86

Tonegawa made landmark discoveries about how the immune system generates antibody diversity and how the brain forms memories.

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Video: How Your Brain Beats AI on the Energy of a Light Bulb Earl K. Miller Neuroscience of Democracy Symposium May 19, 2026 MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory youtu.be/uC8QlVgNIac #neuroscience @picowerinstitute.bsky.social

How Your Brain Beats AI on the Energy of a Light Bulb - Earl K. Miller

YouTube video by Earl Miller

youtu.be

News alert: New paper! Electric fields help guide neural activity, even from moment to moment “The brain is a rollicking sea of electrical influences” picower.mit.edu/news/electri... work by @pinotsislab.bsky.social #neuroscience

Electric fields help guide neural activity, even from moment to moment

A new study adds evidence that electric fields in the brain help to organize and shape underlying neural activity via “ephaptic coupling.”

picower.mit.edu

New results! A new method that analyzes brain waves and spike timing together. This lets us pinpoint exactly which rhythms neurons are locking to. BAYESIAN STATE-SPACE MODEL FOR JOINT INFERENCE OF OSCILLATORY DYNAMICS AND POINT-PROCESS COUPLING doi.org/10.64898/202... #neuroscience

BAYESIAN STATE-SPACE MODEL FOR JOINT INFERENCE OF OSCILLATORY DYNAMICS AND POINT-PROCESS COUPLING

Under a range of behavioral and physiological conditions, spike times and local field potential (LFP) oscillations exhibit phase coupling within specific frequency bands. Classical measures such as sp...

doi.org

Speedy, spiraling electrical waves may be key to brain’s information flow Rotating neuronal waves are built into brain anatomy and help coordinate far-flung regions, mouse imaging study suggests www.science.org/content/arti... #neuroscience

Speedy, spiraling electrical waves may be key to brain’s information flow

Rotating neuronal waves are built into brain anatomy and help coordinate far-flung regions, mouse imaging study suggests

science.org

How do brains integrate sensory evidence over minutes to generate adaptive behaviors? A new Flavell lab preprint identifies C. elegans circuits that integrate aversive smells during foraging to control specific behavioral responses. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #neuroscience @mitbcs.bsky.social

Congratulations to three students who have earned MIT HEALS Graduate Fellowships! Jessie Xiao (studying alpha synuclein in Parkinson's disease), Evan Ruesch (developing tools for optical physiology), & Emma Ibanez (studying sensory neurons in reproductive system). #neuroscience #brain

A recap of our recent symposium "The Neuroscience of Democracy," ICYMI: picower.mit.edu/news/symposi...

Symposium speakers examine how understanding the brain could improve the functioning of democracy

Combining insights from the debates of American civics to the discoveries of neuroscience labs, experts honed in on ways that brain science research could inform efforts to improve political participa...

picower.mit.edu

Myriam Heiman named the director of The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory. Heiman, who studies neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, will lead the institute beginning July 1. picower.mit.edu/news/myriam-... #neuroscience

Register for the next #ResearchInConversation webinar, "Development of Cortical Somatostatin Innervation," May 26, 12PM EDT 🔗 Register: https://neuronline.sfn.org/scientific-research/development-of-cortical-somatostatin-innervation 📄 Read the paper: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1870-25.2026

Congratulations to Professor Emery N. Brown, who this morning received an honorary doctorate of medical sciences from Yale in recognition of his #neuroscience, #statistics and #anesthesiology research.

🐈Amid finals and in advance of graduation, two of our most prestigious 'Purr-fessors,' Kinje and Torbie, held office hours at a cat cafe today, arranged the lab of Professor Myriam Heiman. Attendees also enjoyed boba, macarons and cat crafts. Thanks to MIT's School of Science!

The rules neurons follow to make sense of what we see. A new study in mice by @SurLabMIT discerns the rules that neurons use to turn what could be a cacophony of input into a functional arrangement for processing vision. picower.mit.edu/news/rules-n... #neuroscience

Read a fascinating new interview in Nautilus with @earlkmiller.bsky.social and @lisafeldmanbarrett.com based on their new paper in Nature Reviews Neuroscience, "Categorization is 'baked' into the brain." nautil.us/how-does-you...

How Does Your Brain Know a Cat Is a Cat?

How Does Your Brain Know a Cat Is a Cat?: A conversation with renowned neuroscientists Lisa Feldman Barrett and Earl Miller about categories, “folk psychology,” beginner’s mind, and thinking fast and ...

nautil.us

Happy "Cat-sual Fur-day"! The lab of Professor Myriam Heiman treated our whole building to a cat cafe featuring Torbie, Cleo, and Kinje. Hoomans also got Boba tea!

The company's headband uses EEG to measure brain activity while people enjoy their normal sleep routines. The data are processed by machine learning to monitor the effects of treatments, find signs of disease & create patient cohorts for clinical trials. news.mit.edu/2026/beacon-... #neuroscience

Beacon Biosignals is mapping the brain during sleep

Beacon Biosignals is creating a model to help diagnose and treat brain disorders, based on data collected while people sleep at home. The firm was founded by MIT alumnus Jake Donoghue and former MIT r...

news.mit.edu

#AI for #Alzheimers: MIT-based team releases first AI foundation model for Alzheimer's prevention picower.mit.edu/news/mit-bas...

How neurons sense bacteria in the gut: To understsand the mechanisms that enable the bacterial microbiome to influence brain function, a new study examines the mechanisms at work in a model “bacterial specialist,” C. elegans. picower.mit.edu/news/how-neu... #neuroscience @mitbcs.bsky.social

A new study of Rett syndrome highlights potential for personalized treatment. MIT researchers tracked how two different mutations alter neural circuit development in organoids and how each could be addressed with distinct potential therapeutics. picower.mit.edu/news/rett-sy... @mitbcs.bsky.social

At the Alana Down Syndrome Center's symposium last week, 7 researchers from MIT, Rutgers and the University of São Paulo shared the work they are doing to help people with trisomy 21 throughout their lifespan. picower.mit.edu/news/alana-d... @mitbcs.bsky.social #downsyndrome

Alana Down Syndrome Center symposium highlights studies from brain to heart

Seven researchers from MIT, Rutgers University and the University of São Paulo shared the research they are doing to help people with trisomy 21 throughout their lifespan.

picower.mit.edu

A new paper in @natrevneuro.nature.com challenges decades of dogma about how and why the brain boils down what it sees, hears, smells, tastes and feels into categories. picower.mit.edu/news/complet... #neuroscience #cognition @mitbcs.bsky.social

A complete rethinking of how our brains use categories to make sense of the world

Challenging the classic view, two cognitive scientists argue in a new review that categorization is not a late, specialized stage of sensory processing. Instead, it is a core function operating at eve...

picower.mit.edu

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. picower.mit.edu/news/navigat... #neuroscience