Researchers awarded NARSAD grants
The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation announced $11.9 million in new research grants, strengthening its investment in the most promising ideas to lead to breakthroughs in understanding and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Listening for clues
Baby songbirds learn to sing by imitation, just as human babies do. So researchers at Harvard and Utrecht University, in the Netherlands, have been studying the brains of zebra finches — red-beaked,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Controlling behavior, remotely
In the quest to understand how the brain turns sensory input into behavior, Harvard scientists have crossed a major threshold. Using precisely targeted lasers, researchers have been able to take over...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sniff mechanics
Harvard scientists are shedding light on a neural feedback mechanism that may play a key role in how the olfactory system works in the brain. The mechanism was first identified more than a century...
View ArticleClik here to view.
First Santiago Ramón y Cajal Professor is named
Jeff Lichtman, the Jeremy R. Knowles Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and a world leader in using advanced imaging techniques to study the wiring of the brain and nervous system, has been...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A look inside the lab
Anyone who’s ever wondered about the sort of cutting-edge research that takes place in Harvard’s labs will now have the chance to find out. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ Division of Science...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The motivation to move
Suppose you had $1,000 to invest in the stock market. How would you decide to pick one stock over another? Scientists have made great progress in understanding the neuroscience behind how people...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘Brainbow,’ version 2.0
The breakthrough technique that allowed scientists to obtain one-of-a-kind, colorful images of the myriad connections in the brain and nervous system is about to get a significant upgrade. A group of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Advancing science and technology
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is awarding grants to create three new science and technology centers this year, and it is no accident that two of them will be based in Cambridge. Harvard...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What’s in a face?
When you meet people for the first time, what’s the first thing you think you notice? Is it their hair color, or eye color? Maybe it’s whether they’re wearing a suit or a T-shirt and jeans, or whether...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A face is not a fish
When it comes to recognizing faces, humans are extraordinarily skillful. It’s no surprise — our brains are drawn to faces from the moment we leave the womb, and the average person sees hundreds of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Parental controls
It could be that the key to being a better parent is all in your head, Harvard researchers say. In a study in mice, Catherine Dulac, the Higgins Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A boost for understanding the brain
Two groups of Harvard scientists will be among the first researchers nationwide to receive grant funding through the BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Brown named to National Academy of Engineering
The National Academy of Engineering has elected Emery N. Brown to its ranks, putting him among the few who hold membership in the three major U.S. scientific academies. Brown, the Warren Zapol...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Promising stem cell therapy
Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have developed an “imageable” mouse model of brain-metastatic breast cancer and shown the potential of a stem...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Injectable device delivers nano-view of the brain
It’s a notion that might have come from the pages of a science-fiction novel — an electronic device that can be injected directly into the brain, or other body parts, and treat everything from...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Two named MacArthur Fellows
Matthew Desmond, the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, and Beth Stevens, an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and neuroscientist at Boston...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How the brain builds new thoughts
Let’s start with a simple sentence: Last week Joe Biden beat Vladimir Putin in a game of Scrabble. It’s a strange notion to entertain, certainly, but one humans can easily make sense of, researchers...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Watching sensory information translate into behavior
It remains one of the most fundamental questions in neuroscience: How does the flood of sensory information — everything an animal touches, tastes, smells, sees, and hears — translate into behavior? A...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Eye-opening complexity
Crack open just about any biology textbook to read up on the thalamus, and you’ll find that its function is mainly to serve as a relay station, handing off sensory input to the cerebral cortex for...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Auditory cortex nearly identical in hearing and deaf people
The neural architecture in the auditory cortex — the part of the brain that processes sound — is virtually identical in profoundly deaf and hearing people, a new study has found. The study raises a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How the brain develops
The developmental period from childhood to young adulthood is marked by profound physical, social, and emotional changes. But exactly how those changes are reflected in the brain remains something of a...
View ArticleSpotting speedy brain activity
Researchers have long understood that functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a powerful tool for understanding both brain structure and activity, but new research suggests it is a good deal...
View ArticleNew vistas opening for brain disorder research
In a culture flask, 45 lentil-sized globs of neurons swirl in a gentle eddy of liquid medium. These lumpy, 3-D networks of human nerve cells, called brain organoids, have generated more diverse and...
View ArticleHarvard professor talks brain engineering at Ed Portal
The brain and how it learns may be among the most complicated puzzles in the quickly advancing field of neuroscience. But Harvard is trying to unravel its mystery. The Ariadne Project, led by David...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hand-tool connection is innate despite lack of limbs
Scientists have long known that the brain’s visual system shows considerable organization. Tests have repeatedly found that different parts of the brain are activated when people see different objects....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Whole brain insights in Harvard findings
Scientists appear closer than ever to unlocking the black box that is the brain, and they’re doing it with the help of a fish less than half an inch long. Led by Jeff Lichtman, the Jeremy R. Knowles...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Using fMRI, EEG to search for consciousness in ICU patients
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) may be able to identify ICU patients with severe traumatic brain injuries who have a level of consciousness not revealed...
View ArticleBrain flexibility changes the way we remember and learn
The human brain has a region of cells responsible for linking sensory cues to actions and behaviors and cataloging the link as a memory. Cells that form these links have been deemed highly stable and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Harvard psychology chair launches ‘Outsmarting Human Minds’
When it comes to some of the most important decisions we make — how much to bid for a house, the right person to hire, or how to plan for the future — there is strong scientific evidence that our...
View ArticleHarvard researchers among those receiving more than $150M from NIH BRAIN...
Harvard scientists are among dozens of researchers who will receive more than $150 million in funding over the next five years through the National Institute of Health’s Brain Research through...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A volume control for the brain
With so many sights, sounds, smells, and other stimuli, the brain is flooded by the moment. How can it sort through the flood of information to decide what is important and what can be relegated to the...
View ArticleNew study clarifies gut-brain connection and MS progression
A new study sheds light on the connection between the gut and the brain by defining pathways that may help guide therapies for multiple sclerosis (MS) and other neurologic diseases. The study,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Study explores how the brain processes heat information and influences behavior
Do you pause what you’re doing to put on a sweater because you feel chilly? Do you click the thermostat up a few degrees on a winter day? What about keeping a fan on your desk, or ducking into an...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Blood vessels do more than carry blood, they also keep your brain healthy
The human brain is the most complex and delicate of all the body’s organs, and the one most in need of protection from toxins and other harmful substances — including those we deliberately ingest. But...
View ArticleOne month of abstinence from cannabis improves memory in adolescents, young...
A Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) study finds that one month of abstaining from cannabis use results in measurable improvement in memory functions important for learning among regular cannabis...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Key region of brain examined through cellular atlas
For decades, scientists have viewed the brain as a veritable black box — and now Catherine Dulac and Xiaowei Zhuang are poised to open it. Dulac, the Higgins Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Harvard neuroscientist Paola Arlotta sees disease-fighting potential in brain...
Human brain disorders have always presented researchers with a daunting challenge. They’re hard to study in laboratory mice because they affect the very organ that separates us from animals. And...
View ArticleResearchers identify pathway that drives sustained pain following injury
A toddler puts her hand on a hot stove and swiftly withdraws it. Alas, it’s too late — the child’s finger has sustained a minor burn. To soothe the pain, she puts the burned finger in her mouth....
View ArticleClik here to view.
New technique enables subcellular imaging of brain tissue 1,000X faster than...
In the late 19th century, the Spanish anatomist Santiago Ramón y Cajal laid the foundation for modern neuroscience with a microscope, a pen, and some paper. Applying a cell-staining technique to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
New 3D mini brain models accelerate neuroscience research
Researchers have made a major advance in the development of human brain “organoids” — miniature, 3D tissue cultures that model brains in a dish. The new method, published in Nature, consistently grows...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Harvard researchers present nanowire devices update
Machines are getting cozy with our cells. Embeddable sensors record how and when neurons fire; electrodes spark heart cells to beat or brain cells to fire; neuron-like devices could even encourage...
View ArticleA new paper examines how neuron-like implants could treat brain disorders
Charles M. Lieber and Shaun Patel, a faculty member at the Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, see a field — their own — at a tipping point. In a perspective titled “Precision...
View ArticleAI researchers share data on how we sort options, make decisions
Researchers have been able to prove that the brain learns from experience since Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov conditioned dogs to drool in anticipation of food. In the 100-plus years since, however,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Student-athlete rebounds from head injury to earn degree in neuroscience
This is one in a series of profiles showcasing some of Harvard’s stellar graduates. Sope Adeleye went up for a block and everything went black. “I just got hit in the face,” she said, describing that...
View ArticleSingle neurons linked to social reasoning identified for first time
For the first time, scientists have identified the individual neurons critical to human social reasoning, a cognitive process that requires us to acknowledge and predict others’ hidden beliefs and...
View ArticleLiving through COVID may affect brains of the uninfected
Even for those never infected with SARS-CoV-2, new research shows that lifestyle disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic may have triggered inflammation in the brain contributing to fatigue,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A tour of the brain’s life span, complete with upside-down vision
This is a coming-of-age story — involving your brain. That’s how W.A. Harris opened his virtual Harvard Science Book Talk on Monday. The talk, presented by the University’s Division of Science, Cabot...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fresh insights into inflammation, aging brains
Results from a new study by Harvard researchers just published in Cell offer insights into the relationship between inflammation and the cognitive impairment we experience as we age, and suggest the...
View ArticlePatients undergoing surgery for cancer face higher risk of suicide
New research reveals elevated suicide rates among adults undergoing surgery for cancer, with half of the suicides occurring during the first three postoperative years. The study, led by a team of...
View Article