This story also appears in our Spring 2026 BrainScan newsletter. *** Schizophrenia, a complex and variable psychiatric disorder, changes people’s perceptions of reality. People with schizophrenia may hear, see, or sense things that aren’t there, and they often hold firm to mistaken ideas about the world despite strong evidence to the contrary. As if these […]
What if a technology could reanimate parts of the body that have lost their connection to the brain — like a bladder that can no longer empty due to a spinal cord injury, or intestines that can’t push food forward due to Crohn’s disease? What if this technology could also send sensations such as hunger […]
Millions of students nationwide use text-supplemented audiobooks, learning tools that are thought to help those who struggle with reading keep up in the classroom. A new study from scientists at MIT’s McGovern Institute finds that many students do benefit from the audiobooks, gaining new vocabulary through the stories they hear. But study participants learned significantly […]
One of the symptoms of schizophrenia is difficulty incorporating new information about the world. This can lead patients to struggle with making decisions and, eventually, to lose touch with reality. MIT neuroscientists have now identified a gene mutation that appears to give rise to this type of difficulty. In a study of mice, the researchers […]
When patients undergo general anesthesia, doctors can choose among several drugs. Although each of these drugs acts on neurons in different ways, they all lead to the same result: a disruption of the brain’s balance between stability and excitability, according to a new MIT study. This disruption causes neural activity to become increasingly unstable, until […]
MIT neuroscientists have figured out how the brain is able to focus on a single voice among a cacophony of many voices, shedding light on a longstanding neuroscientific phenomenon known as the cocktail party problem. This attentional focus becomes necessary when you’re in any crowded environment, such as a cocktail party, with many conversations going […]
RareNet 2026: Accelerating Discovery to Treatment in Rare Brain Disorders Date: Tuesday, June 9, 2026 Location: MIT Building 46, Singleton Auditorium (Room 46-3002), 524 Main Street, Cambridge, MA Time: 9:00 a.m. – 4:15 p.m. with reception to follow Registration is required Symposium Overview The pace of discovery in rare brain disorders has never been faster. […]
