The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has named McGovern Institute neuroscientist Mehrdad Jazayeri as one of 26 new HHMI investigators—a group of visionary scientists who HHMI will support with more than $300 million over the next seven years. Support from HHMI is intended to give its investigators, who work at institutions across the United States, […]
What does your license plate say about you? In the United States, more than 9 million vehicles carry personalized “vanity” license plates, in which preferred words, digits, or phrases replace an otherwise random assignment of letters and numbers to identify a vehicle. While each state and the District of Columbia maintains its own rules about […]
Polina Anikeeva PhD ’09, the Matoula S. Salapatas Professor at MIT, has been named the new head of MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE), effective July 1. “Professor Anikeeva’s passion and dedication as both a researcher and educator, as well as her impressive network of connections across the wider Institute, make her incredibly […]
There are many drugs that anesthesiologists can use to induce unconsciousness in patients. Exactly how these drugs cause the brain to lose consciousness has been a longstanding question, but MIT neuroscientists have now answered that question for one commonly used anesthesia drug. Using a novel technique for analyzing neuron activity, the researchers discovered that the […]
State-of-the-art prosthetic limbs can help people with amputations achieve a natural walking gait, but they don’t give the user full neural control over the limb. Instead, they rely on robotic sensors and controllers that move the limb using predefined gait algorithms. Using a new type of surgical intervention and neuroprosthetic interface, MIT researchers, in collaboration […]
Some people, especially those in public service, perform admirable feats—healthcare workers fighting to keep patients alive or a first responder arriving at the scene of a car crash. But the emotional weight can become a mental burden. Research has shown that emergency personnel are at elevated risk for mental health challenges like post-traumatic stress disorder. […]
Language is a defining feature of humanity, and for centuries, philosophers and scientists have contemplated its true purpose. We use language to share information and exchange ideas—but is it more than that? Do we use language not just to communicate, but to think? In the June 19, 2024, issue of the journal Nature, McGovern Institute […]
