The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) announced today that McGovern Investigator Evelina Fedorenko will receive a 2025 Troland Research Award for her groundbreaking contributions towards understanding the language network in the human brain. The Troland Research Award is given annually to recognize unusual achievement by early-career researchers within the broad spectrum of experimental psychology. Fedorenko, […]
Nearly 50 years ago, neuroscientists discovered cells within the brain’s hippocampus that store memories of specific locations. These cells also play an important role in storing memories of events, known as episodic memories. While the mechanism of how place cells encode spatial memory has been well-characterized, it has remained a puzzle how they encode episodic […]
The core components of CRISPR-based genome-editing therapies are bacterial proteins called nucleases that can stimulate unwanted immune responses in people, increasing the chances of side effects and making these therapies potentially less effective. Researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and Cyrus Biotechnology have now engineered two CRISPR nucleases, Cas9 and Cas12, to […]
This post is adapted from an MIT News story. *** Feng Zhang, the James and Patricia Poitras Professor of Neuroscience at MIT and an Investigator at the McGovern Institute, has won the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the nation’s highest recognition for scientists and engineers. The prestigious award recognizes “American innovators whose vision, intellect, […]
This post is adapted from an MIT research news story. *** As we navigate the world, we adapt our movement in response to changes in the environment. From rocky terrain to moving escalators, we seamlessly modify our movements to maximize energy efficiency and our reduce risk of falling. The computational principles underlying this phenomenon, however, […]
When soundwaves reach the inner ear, neurons there pick up the vibrations and alert the brain. Encoded in their signals is a wealth of information that enables us to follow conversations, recognize familiar voices, appreciate music, and quickly locate a ringing phone or crying baby. Neurons send signals by emitting spikes—brief changes in voltage that […]
A new study from the McGovern Institute shows how interests can modulate language processing in children’s brains and paves the way for personalized brain research. The paper, which appears in Imaging Neuroscience, was conducted in the lab of McGovern Institute Investigator John Gabrieli, and led by senior author Anila D’Mello, a former McGovern postdoctoral fellow […]
