Protein Imaging Reveals Detailed Brain Architecture

MIT chemical engineers and neuroscientists have developed a new way to classify neurons by labelling and imaging the proteins found in each cell. This type of imaging offers clues to each neuron’s function and should help in mapping the human brain, the researchers say. Says Kwanghun Chung, who is the Samuel A. Goldblith Assistant Professor…

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Languages Gain New Color Concepts via Exposure to Other Languages

The human eye can perceive about 1 million colors, but languages have far fewer words to describe those colors. So-called basic color terms, single color words used frequently by speakers of a given language, are often employed to gauge how languages differ in their handling of color. Languages spoken in industrialized nations such as the…

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How Grown-ups Decode What Babies are Saying

When babies first begin to talk, their vocabulary is very limited. Often one of the first sounds they generate is “da,” which may refer to dad, a dog, a dot, or nothing at all. How does an adult listener make sense of this limited verbal repertoire? A new study from MIT and Harvard University researchers…

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Isolation Provokes Brain Activity Similar To That Seen During Hunger Cravings

Since the coronavirus pandemic began in the spring, many people have only seen their close friends and loved ones during video calls, if at all. A new study from MIT finds that the longings we feel during this kind of social isolation share a neural basis with the food cravings we feel when hungry. The…

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Neuroscientists Find Memory Cells That Help Us Interpret New Situations

Imagine you are meeting a friend for dinner at a new restaurant. You may try dishes you haven’t had before, and your surroundings will be completely new to you. However, your brain knows that you have had similar experiences — perusing a menu, ordering appetizers, and splurging on dessert are all things that you have…

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How Dopamine Drives Neural Activity Throughout The Brain

Using a specialized magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sensor, MIT neuroscientists have discovered how dopamine released deep within the brain influences both nearby and distant brain regions. Dopamine plays many roles in the brain, most notably related to movement, motivation, and reinforcement of behavior. However, until now it has been difficult to study precisely how a…

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Technique Can Image Individual Proteins Within Synapses

Our brains contain millions of synapses — the connections that transmit messages from neuron to neuron. Within these synapses are hundreds of different proteins, and dysfunction of these proteins can lead to conditions such as schizophrenia and autism. Researchers at MIT and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT have now devised a new way…

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Perception of Musical Pitch Varies across Cultures

People who are accustomed to listening to Western music, which is based on a system of notes organized in octaves, can usually perceive the similarity between notes that are same but played in different registers — say, high C and middle C. However, a longstanding question is whether this a universal phenomenon or one that…

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Robotic Thread Is Designed To Slip Through The Brain’s Blood Vessels

MIT engineers have developed a magnetically steerable, thread-like robot that can actively glide through narrow, winding pathways, such as the labrynthine vasculature of the brain. In the future, this robotic thread may be paired with existing endovascular technologies, enabling doctors to remotely guide the robot through a patient’s brain vessels to quickly treat blockages and…

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