MIT neuroscientists have identified a brain circuit critical for learning to make decisions that require evaluating the cost or reward of an action. They showed this circuit is negatively affected by ...

Rapid recurrent processing in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) helps primates quickly identify objects, according to research from MIT's McGovern Institute and Center for Brains, Minds, and...

Optogenetics can now control neural circuits at unprecedented depths within living brain tissue without surgery

“When we started looking at how music—“sonic seasoning” —can change the taste of the food, that was really surprising,” says Dr. Charles Spence.

Humans are born with a part of the brain that is prewired to be receptive to seeing words and letters, setting the stage at birth for people to learn how to read, a new study suggests. Analyzing brain...

Creative ideas are linked to resting fluctuations that begin as a kind of noise

To recognize a chair or a dog, our brain separates objects into their individual properties and then puts them back together. Until recently, it has remained unclear what these properties are. Scienti...

Encoding memories in engram cells is controlled by large-scale remodeling of the proteins and DNA that make up cells’ chromatin, according to an MIT study. This chromatin remodeling, which allows spec...

According to philosopher David Hume, it takes a lifetime to get our emotions right. Neuroscience has much to learn from him