News
Powerful shrinking technique could enable devices that compute with light
52+ min ago (363+ words) Anne Trafton | May 12, 2026 May 12, 2026 Using a'new technique that can create vacancies at any site across a material and then shrink it'to about 1/2, 000 of'its original volume, MIT researchers have designed'nanotechnology'devices that could be used for optical computing and other applications involving…...
Michale Fee and Fan Wang Elected to the National Academy of Sciences
1+ week, 5+ day ago (259+ words) by Julie Pryor | April 30, 2026 April 30, 2026 Categories: Cellular & Molecular Neuroscience, Michale Fee, Fan Wang, Announcements, Awards & Honors Two Mc Govern neuroscientists are among six MIT faculty members selected this year to join the academy. "Election to the National Academy of Sciences…...
A different reality
1+ mon, 1+ week ago (711+ words) by Jennifer Michalowski | April 2, 2026 April 15, 2026 With new insights into how brains with schizophrenia work differently, Mc Govern scientists are working towards better treatments for people living with the disorder. This story also appears in our Spring 2026 Brain Scan newsletter. Scientists…...
Turning muscles into motors gives static organs new life
1+ mon, 1+ week ago (484+ words) by Rubina Veerakone | March 31, 2026 March 30, 2026 Categories: Neurotechnology, Hugh Herr, K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics The biohybrid system developed by researchers at the K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics is the first living implant that uses rewired nerves to revive paralyzed organs....
Brain circuit needed to incorporate new information may be linked to schizophrenia
1+ mon, 3+ week ago (1051+ words) Mc Govern researchers have identified neurons in the mediodorsal thalamus (labeled pink) whose dysfunction can lead to impairments in the ability to update beliefs based on new information. Image: Guoping Feng and Tingting Zhou by Anne Trafton | March 18, 2026 March 18, 2026 Categories:…...
Three anesthesia drugs all have the same effect in the brain, MIT researchers find
1+ mon, 3+ week ago (783+ words) by Anne Trafton | March 17, 2026 March 17, 2026 Discovering this common mechanism could lead to a universal anesthesia-delivery system to monitor patients more effectively. When patients undergo general anesthesia, doctors can choose among several drugs. Although each of these drugs acts on neurons…...
How the brain handles the "cocktail party problem
1+ mon, 4+ week ago (1119+ words) by Anne Trafton | March 13, 2026 March 13, 2026 Using a computational model, neuroscientists showed how the brain can selectively focus attention on one voice among others in a noisy environment. MIT neuroscientists have figured out how the brain is able to focus on…...
Liqun Luo named winner of the 2026 Scolnick Prize in Neuroscience
2+ mon, 1+ week ago (907+ words) Today, Stanford University neuroscientist Liqun Luo was announced as the recipient of the 2026 Edward M. Scolnick Prize in Neuroscience by the Mc Govern Institute for Brain Research at MIT. Luo is the Ann and Bill Swindells Professor in the School of…...
Neurons receive precisely tailored teaching signals as we learn
2+ mon, 2+ week ago (451+ words) by Jennifer Michalowski | February 25, 2026 February 25, 2026 New work suggests that the brain can deliver neuron-specific feedback during learning'resembling the error signals that drive machine learning. When we learn a new skill, the brain has to decide'cell by cell'what to change. New…...
Feng Zhang inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame
3+ mon, 1+ week ago (148+ words) by Julie Pryor | February 3, 2026 February 3, 2026 Fifteen innovation pioneers, including Mc Govern Investigator Feng Zhang, have been inducted into the 2026 class of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Zhang is being recognized for his innovations in gene editing and for sharing…...