The MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences is a hub for groundbreaking research into how the brain works, from neural circuits to cognition. Recent highlights from the department showcase a wide range of discoveries and innovations.
Key Research Highlights
A new study in Scientific American explores how curiosity-driven science is essential to America’s success, featuring promising young scientists and icons at MIT. Another study reveals that people expect reciprocal generosity only in interactions with friends or those of equal social status. Myriam Heiman has been named director of The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, where she will lead research on neurodegenerative diseases like Huntington’s and Parkinson’s.
Innovative MRI sensors developed at MIT now detect target molecules in the brain and body with greater sensitivity. Researchers have also uncovered the rules neurons follow to process visual input, shedding light on how brain cells organize thousands of circuit connections. Six MIT faculty and ten alumni were elected to the National Academy of Sciences for 2026, recognized for outstanding contributions to natural and social sciences.
Four members of the MIT community, including computational neuroscientist Sven Dorkenwald and cell biologist Whitney Henry, were named 2026 Searle Scholars. Language development research shows that the brain’s language network is still evolving in adolescence, but by age 4, language processing is already lateralized to the left side. A powerful shrinking technique developed at MIT could enable devices that compute with light.
Researchers are also rethinking how the brain uses categories to make sense of the world, proposing a challenge to traditional views. The MIT BrainTrust program supports neighbors living with brain injuries through a buddy program involving nearly 100 students. Rett syndrome studies using advanced human cell cultures highlight potential for personalized treatments, tracking how different mutations alter neural circuit development.
Beacon Biosignals, founded by MIT alumni, is mapping the brain during sleep with an AI-driven platform to diagnose and treat disease. MIT senior Olivia Honeycutt investigates how language shapes our views of the world. Finally, a study in nematodes reveals how neurons sense bacteria in the gut, showing neural interaction with bacteria has important effects on animal brains.
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