Typically, it would take two graduate students to do the research that Setayesh Radkani is doing. Driven by an insatiable curiosity about the human mind, she is working on two PhD thesis projects in two different cognitive neuroscience labs at MIT. For one, she is studying punishment as a social tool to influence others. For the other, she is uncovering the neural processes underlying social learning — that is, learning from others.

According to a new study from MIT, a screening test commonly used to determine eligibility for studies of autism results in severe underrepresentation of women in these studies. John Gabrieli, from BCS and the McGovern Institute, is the senior author of the study led by former MIT postdoc Anita D’Mello, now an assistant professor at the University of Texas Southwestern. MIT Technical Associate Isabelle Frosch, Research Coordinator Cindy Li, and Research Specialist Annie Cardinaux are also authors of the paper.

Many bodily functions, such as walking and breathing, are controlled by brain circuits called central oscillators. MIT neuroscientists fully characterized the neural mechanisms of such an oscillator in a mammal for the first time. Fan Wang from BCS and the McGovern Institute is the senior author of the study, which appeared in Nature. The lead authors of the paper are MIT research scientists Jun Takatoh and Vincent Prevosto.