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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 […]

On Nov. 10, some of the country’s top memorizers converged on MIT’s Kresge Auditorium to compete in a “Tournament of Memory Champions” in front of a live audience. The competition was split into four events: long-term memory, words-to-remember, auditory memory, and double-deck of cards, in which competitors must memorize the exact order of two decks […]

For this year’s holiday greeting, we asked the McGovern Institute community what comes to mind when they think of the winter holidays. More than 100 words were submitted for the project. The words were fed into ChatGPT to generate our holiday “prediction.” And a text-to-music generator (Udio) converted the words into a holiday song. With […]

Dopamine is a powerful signal in the brain, influencing our moods, motivations, movements, and more. The neurotransmitter is crucial for reward-based learning, a function that may be disrupted in a number of psychiatric conditions, from mood disorders to addiction. Now, researchers led by Ann Graybiel, an investigator at MIT’s McGovern Institute, have found surprising patterns […]