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Emilio Bizzi examines how the brain translates our general intentions into the detailed commands needed to control muscle movements. One of his key discoveries is that groups of muscles are activated synergistically by circuits of neurons in the spinal cord. He believes that these synergies represent the fundamental building blocks for assembling a repertoire of complex movements. Stock footage courtesy of pond5, istockphoto, Emilio Bizzi, Darin W. Trees DPT, CWS / Mōveo technology, The Chattanooga Group, Jeff Powe

Read more about Emilio Bizzi here.

 

 

Learn more about Bob Desimone >>

Saxe is featured in the December 2012 issue of Scientific American.

“Knowledge of how the brain intuits what someone else is thinking helps Rebecca Saxe devise possible solutions to seemingly intractable political and social conflict.” — Gareth Cook, Scientific American

Read the story here.

 

The McGovern Institute faculty comprises one of the most distinguished groups of brain researchers anywhere in the world. Its members include one Nobel laureate, five members of the National Academy of Sciences, and leading experts in many areas of neuroscience.

The Institute currently has 18 principal investigators. Along with its 16 full members, these include two associate faculty members, who collaborate closely with the full investigators and participate in all the Institute’s activities. All McGovern faculty hold appointments in one or more academic departments at MIT.

 

The November 2012 issue of Wired UK features McGovern neuroscientist, Ed Boyden.

“Ed Boyden, an engineer turned neuroscientist, makes tools for brain hackers. In his lab at MIT, he’s built a robot that can capture individual neurons and uses light potentially to control major diseases — all in his quest to ‘solve the brain’.” — Ed Yong, Wired UK

Read the full profile here.

 

 

This 2-minute video, narrated by McGovern Institute Director Robert Desimone, provides an overview of the Institute including our goals, our research interests, and our accomplishments.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides researchers with a non-invasive method for viewing the human brain in high resolution. This video shows a structural MRI produced at the Martinos Imaging Center at MIT, a state-of-the-art brain imaging facility that serves the biomedical research community at MIT and throughout the Boston area. Video: Christina Triantafyllou

The Friends of the McGovern Institute Student Fellowship has been awarded to Joel Leibo for his work in Prof. Tomaso Poggio’s lab. Leibo’s research asks two key questions: How do we learn to recognize faces? And how can we build machines to do the same? He is applying his background in neuroscience and mathematics to the study of computational models of vision. Leibo plans to use the McGovern Institute’s newly acquired magnetoencephalography (MEG) scanner to decode face-related activity in the human brain.

This award-winning video provides viewers with an intimate tour of the McGovern Institute and it explores the tools our researchers are using to unlock the mystery of the human brain. It shows how our research is pushing the frontiers of technology and providing new insights into brain disorders such as autism, Parkinson’s disease, and mental illness.

Produced by Emmy nominated John Rubin Productions, “Welcome to the McGovern Institute” won a 2010 CINE Golden Eagle Award and a 2010 Telly Award, which honors “outstanding local, regional, and cable TV commercials and programs, the finest video and film productions, and online film and video.”

Neurons in the mouse cerebellum, expressing the synaptic protein SAPAP-4.
Image: Louis Tee and Guoping Feng