Featured Story:
Unveiling the Possible Origins of Visual Category Information in the Brain
November 18, 2024
Brain regions that preferentially process faces, places, and words may emerge naturally from exposure to diverse images, without requiring built-in structures dedicated to specific categories. By training AI models to distinguish images based on visual differences alone, researchers found that brain-aligned category-selective neurons emerged spontaneously in the model.
Community Stories
October 10, 2024
Clifford Woolf shares a perspectives piece about what scientists can learn from the opioid crisis as they develop new pain treatments. The piece is part of a special Nature Outlook edition on pain.
September 9, 2024
Tari Tan shares an article she has written in the Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education together with colleagues from three other institutions, providing a general overview of the neuroscience PhD admissions landscape, followed by a deeper dive into two specific examples, at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Harvard and discussion of training programs that increase participation and diversity in neuroscience.
August 27, 2024
A lot is unknown about how brain circuits develop and mature in babies and toddlers. Carol Wilkinson shares new data on developmental trajectories of EEG activity from 0-3 years—revealing age-dependent, nonlinear changes in periodic alpha and beta brain waves that are suggestive of distinct milestones in circuit maturation.
Original article in: Nature Communications >
August 1, 2024
Complement proteins are known to mediate the pruning of synapses by microglia. In new work with implications for our understanding of schizophrenia, Krishna K. Narayanan, Matthew L Baum, Matthew Johnson, and Beth Stevens, and colleagues at Boston Children's Hospital, find that a neuronal protein called CSDM1 opposes the deposition of complement proteins on synapses, making them less vulnerable to engulfment by microglia.
Original article in: Nature Communications >
In the News
November 5, 2024
HMS News and the Harvard Gazette profiles the work of David Walt, who is operating at a microscopic level, observing cell abnormalities that may contribute to depression, and Diego Pizzagalli, who is taking a bigger-picture approach, using MRIs and other methods to identify potential treatments by tracking activity in key brain regions. Their work is supported by a major grant from the nonprofit Wellcome Leap.
November 5, 2024
New research from Anne O'Donnell-Luria, Gemma L. Carvill (Northwestern) and colleagues, first authors Vijay S. Ganesh and Kevin Riquin (Nantes Université). diagnoses for the the first time a patient with a rare genetic disorder caused by changes to the CHASERR gene and highlights the need to examine the non-coding parts of the genome in rare diseases.
Original article in: New England Journal of Medicine >
November 5, 2024
Boston Children's Hospital Answers profiles the work of Ed Smith and his team at the Cerebrovascular Surgery and Interventions Center (CSIC) at Boston Children’s Hospital. They are conducting pioneering research and guidelines to enhance diagnosis and treatment of cavernous malformations, focusing on genetics and advanced interventions for better care and outcomes for families.
Original article in: New England Journal of Medicine >
Awards & Honors
November 5, 2024
MCB professor Catherine Dulac was honored with the title of Officer of the Legion d’Honneur, France’s highest civilian award. The prestigious medal was presented to her by the French Ambassador at a special ceremony hosted by the French Consul in Cambridge, MA, on October 26th.
November 5, 2024
Takao Hensch, MCB Professor and Neurology Professor at Boston Children’s Hospital, will receive the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon—one of Japan’s highest civilian honors.
Banner Image:
Spiral ganglion neuron density. Image courtesy of Isle Bastille (Lab of Lisa Goodrich, Harvard Medical School).