The Boyden group, centered in the MIT Media Lab and jointly affiliated with the MIT Department of Biological Engineering and the MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, works on inventing new tools for the analysis and engineering of brain circuits. We have been developing molecules, hardware, and methods to activate,silence, record, and analyze neural activity and circuit signaling, within and between brain circuits. We also work on novel, focal, noninvasive methods for human brain stimulation.

We use multiple approaches including traditional- and CRISPR-based genome editing, molecular, optogenetic, electrophysiological, and imaging techniques to understand 1) how olfactory stimuli are transformed to behavioral outputs as function of learning and 2) how the immune system modulates neural circuits to shape and guide behavioral outputs.

The development of the vertebrate brain involves a phase of synaptogenesis during which the activity patterns of young neurons mediate a competition that allows only highly effective synapses to survive. These activity-dependent developmental events are responsible for many of the adaptive changes in brain wiring as children mature and it is also likely to be responsible for some of the devastating and permanent behavioral effects of genetically or environmentally caused disruptions in normal early brain activity. The Constantine - Patton laboratory investigates the mechanisms involved in this developmental synaptic plasticity. Specifically, we are trying to dissect the signaling cascades through which synaptic activity determines which young synapses will be withdrawn and which ones will be retained to mediate adult brain function.

The research goal of the DiCarlo laboratory is to understand the mechanisms underlying visual object recognition. Specifically, we seek to understand how sensory input is transformed by the brain from an initial representation (essentially a photograph on the retina), to a new, remarkably powerful form of representation -- one that can support our seemingly effortless ability to solve the computationally difficult problem of object recognition. 

Synapses are fundamental units of neuronal connectivity in the brain. It is at these specialized cell junctions that neurons communicate with one another. Many neuroscientists now look to the synapse for principles of learning and memory, for processes underlying behavior, and for pathological mechanisms of various neurological and psychiatric disorders. The Feng lab's long-term goal is to understand the mechanisms regulating the development and function of synapses and to probe the roles of synaptic and circuitry dysfunction in certain abnormal behaviors and their relevance to psychiatric disorders. There are currently three major aspects of research in the lab.

The goal of the Gabrieli lab is to understand principles of brain organization that are consistent across individuals and those that vary across people due to age, personality, and other dimensions of individuality. Therefore, we examine brain-behavior relations across the life span, from children through the elderly. Our primary methods are brain imaging (functional and structural), and the experimental behavioral study of patients with brain injuries. The majority of our studies involve functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), but we also employ other brain measures as needed to address scientific questions, including electroencephalography (EEG).

The same brain that can construct language, music and mathematics also lets us develop habits of thought and action. These semi-automatic routines free us to think and attend to the world. But the habit system can also be hijacked by disease and drug exposure. The Graybiel Laboratory focuses on the habit system of the brain and our remarkable ability to switch from conscious activity to nearly non-conscious behavior. The goal of this research is to understand how we make and break habits and how the neurobiology of the habit system is helping to advance understanding of human problems ranging from Parkinson’s disease to obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders and addiction.

The Harnett laboratory studies how the biophysical features of neurons, including ion channels, receptors, and membrane electrical properties, endow neural circuits with powerful processing capabilities, ultimately allowing them to perform the complex computations required to drive adaptive behavior.

The contribution of the oculomotor system to the acquisition and maintenance of visually guided behavior is being examined in cats. Surgical immobilization of an eye in dark-reared kittens precludes development of guidance when the paralyzed eye is provided exposure in light. Light-reared animals retain visual guidance following eye immobilization surgery. Similarly, when proprioception from ocular musculature is surgically interrupted in dark-reared kittens, they fail to acquire visually guided behaviors when later exposed in light. The findings imply that both visually elicited eye movements and proprioception from the extraocular muscles are essential to acquisition of visually guided behaviors, while their role is reduced following this development.

Hogan's research in the Newman Laboratory emphasizes forceful interaction between the motor control systems of humans and machines (i.e., robots). Recent work pioneered therapeutic neurobotics to promote recovery after brain injury. It provides durable benefits even for chronic-phase stroke survivors, suggesting that with appropriate stimulation neural plasticity may be harnessed even long after injury. Devices to address balance, gait and abnormal lower-limb motor synergies, both in animals and humans, are in development or beginning trials.

A new generation of brain scanning methods will combine the specificity of cellular neuroimaging with the noninvasiveness and coverage of functional magnetic resonance imaging. The Jasanoff Laboratory is developing molecular strategies to help achieve this. We work on the chemistry and biochemistry of novel neuroimaging agents, and our overall goal is to apply the new agents for high-resolution analyses of the neural mechanisms of simple behavior in animals.

The Kanwisher lab investigates the functional organization of the brain as a window into the architecture of the human mind. In the past, our lab has discovered a number of cortical regions that are stunningly specialized for specific cognitive tasks such as the perception of faces, places, bodies, and words. Current work is attempting to better characterize the function of each of these regions, to test long-standing but unresolved claims of other cortical specializations (e.g., for language), and to search for new unpredicted specializations using novel clustering methods (in collaboration with Polina Golland). More generally, we want to know which mental functions get their own specialized piece of cortical territory and why we have cortical regions specialized for some mental functions, but apparently not others.

How are transient sensory experiences captured and stored in the brain? The main focus of the Lin lab is to explore the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which experience is coupled to modifications of neural circuits that lead to long term behavioural changes.

Operating at the intersection of psychology, neuroscience, and engineering, the McDermott lab’s long term goals include understanding the computational principles underlying human hearing, improving devices for assisting those whose hearing is impaired and designing more effective machine systems for recognizing and interpreting sound.

The capacity of the brain to modify connections in response to levels of activity is termed plasticity. Plasticity is a prominent feature of brain development, and in the adult underlies learning and memory and adaptive reorganization of sensory maps. The Nedivi lab studies the cellular mechanisms that underlie activity-dependent plasticity in the developing and adult brain through studies of neuronal structural dynamics, identification of the participating genes, and characterization of the proteins they encode.

The overall goal of research in the Potter lab is to understand the very rapid processes involved in perceiving, comprehending, and remembering meaningful material such as words, sentences, or pictures. We've discovered that the meaning of a pictured scene or written word is understood in a fraction of a second, much faster than the time required for stabilizing even a brief memory of that stimulus -- unless the stimulus fits into the viewer's current mental context, like a word that is part of a sentence. To study these processes we use rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) of words or pictures to mimic continuous reading or viewing. Our research subjects either look for particular targets in these sequences or are tested afterward to assess memory.

Fruit flies can learn. They can identify a specific chemical odor that they have experienced with electric shock and avoid it. Moreover, they can remember to avoid it for several days. The Quinn lab is investigating the molecular mechanisms underlying learning acquisition and memory storage by inducing and selecting single-gene mutations that affect learning or memory, and by engineering transgenic fly strains that disrupt these processes.

We live in a three-dimensional world, but each of our eyes only receives a two-dimensional image. How does our brain combine these images? 

Research in the Schiller laboratory is concerned with the functions of the mammalian visual and oculomotor systems. The work is carried out in both humans and monkeys and involves behavioral studies, fMRI imaging procedures, single-cell recordings, microstimulation, and pharmacological manipulations.

MIT Early Childhood Cognition Lab lead investigator Laura Schulz studies learning in early childhood. Her research bridges computational models of cognitive development and behavioral studies in order to understand the origins of inquiry and discovery.

Professor Slotine is the Director of the Nonlinear Systems Laboratory which studies general mathematical principles of nonlinear system stability, adaptation, and learning, and how they apply to robots and to models of biological control. The lab is particularly interested in how stability and performance constraints shape system architecture, representation, and algorithms in robots, and in whether similar constraints may in some cases lead to similar mechanisms in biological systems. Tools from nonlinear control, such as sliding variables, wave variables, and contraction theory also suggest a number of simple models of physiological motor control, which may help understand the specific roles of hierarchies, motor primitives, and nerve transmission delays.

The Tenenbaum laboratory studies the computational basis of human learning and inference. Through a combination of mathematical modeling, computer simulation, and behavioral experiments, we try to uncover the logic behind our everyday inductive leaps: constructing perceptual representations, separating “style” and “content” in perception, learning concepts and words, judging similarity or representativeness, inferring causal connections, noticing coincidences, predicting the future.

The primary goal of the Tsai laboratory is to elucidate the pathological mechanisms underlying neurological disorders affecting learning and memory. The major research areas include brain aging and Alzheimer’s disease. We are taking a multidisciplinary approach to investigate the molecular, cellular, and circuit basis of  neurodegenerative disorders.

My general area of research is the study of vision - including the processing of visual information by the human visual system, and computer vision. The goals of this research are to understand how our own visual system operates, and how to construct artificial systems with visual capabilities including, for example, aids for the visually impaired.

The Wilson laboratory studies the neural processes within the hippocampus and neocortex that enable memories to form and persist over long periods of time. We use a technique that allows us to simultaneously record the activity of hundreds of individual neurons across multiple brain regions in freely behaving animals. When combined with genetic, pharmacological, and behavioral manipulations, these recordings allow us to gain a mechanistic understanding of how animals learn and remember.

The goal of the Wurtman laboratory is to discover safe and effective treatments for brain diseases. Over the years, we have used a common basic strategy for doing so:

• Doing fundamental research to identify a previously unsuspected control mechanism involving brain chemistry
• Confirming that this newly discovered mechanism is at work in the human brain
• Identifying a disease in which this mechanism goes awry
• Developing and testing potential treatments based on these discoveries