McGovern Institute

The McGovern community mourns the loss of Susumu Tonegawa, whose visionary research inspired countless researchers worldwide.

Lynn Sörensen, @JamesJDiCarlo and @KohitijKar found that as the model’s performance improved, it reorganized itself in ways that closely paralleled changes the team detected in the brains of animals. Their findings are published today in @NatureComms nature.com/articles/s4146…

As we interact with the world and learn new things, our brain is constantly rewiring itself. McGovern and @YorkUniversity scientists have combined detailed analysis of brain activity with computational modeling to better understand that change. mcgovern.mit.edu/2026/07/08/how…

President Sally Kornbluth and a number of MIT faculty, students, and alumni are featured in @sciam “The Young American Scientists” issue, which highlights early career researchers, examines the current state of science in the United States, and offers reasons to be optimistic about the future. 🧵 (1/4) scientificamerican.com/report/young-a… Graphics: Jose-Luis Olivares/MIT

The @PNASNews paper led by @ev_fedorenko + @HopeKean is out today: pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn… @mitbrainandcog @ScienceMIT

McGovern neuroscientists have discovered that you don't need language to think logically. People with severe language impairments solve complex reasoning puzzles perfectly and brain scans show language areas remain silent during logical reasoning. mcgovern.mit.edu/2026/07/06/sep…

MIT has appointed McGovern faculty members @sdorkenw + @JoshHMcDermott to named professorships that will provide additional support for their “outstanding research and educational careers.” Hats off to these professors! 💫 mcgovern.mit.edu/2026/07/01/nam… @mitbrainandcog @ScienceMIT

For 250 years, discovery, courage, and tenacity have driven this country forward and will continue to. From medicine to infrastructure to breakthroughs we can't yet imagine, science touches every part of daily life because someone, somewhere followed their curiosity. What are you curious about?  #CuriosityOnAMission curiositymission.org

The @SfNJournals paper, led by @ev_fedorenko + @agata_wolna, is out today: jneurosci.org/content/early/… Other authors include: @aaronwriight @_Coltoncasto @samhutch511 @ben_lipkin

Surprise! The brain's language processing network is more elaborate than previously thought. McGovern researchers just identified 17 NEW regions involved in language—scattered across the cerebellum, hippocampus, and more. mcgovern.mit.edu/2026/07/01/the…

Four PhD students from McGovern labs have been awarded prestigious HEALS Fellowships! 🧠✨ Emma Odom, Evan Ruesch, Ho Kyung Sung + Julia Laventhall are tackling bold challenges in pain neuroscience, brain imaging tools, cognitive computation, and neuronal biophysics. Congrats!

Learn more about RareNet at the McGovern Institute 👇mcgovern.mit.edu/centers/rare-b…

MIT President Sally Kornbluth perfectly captured the moment: "I look forward to watching RareNet dissolve needless barriers, accelerate timelines, and bring new hope to millions of patients and their families for whom hope is long overdue."

300+ million people worldwide live with rare brain disorders. Most lack approved therapies. MIT graduates Ana Méndez and Rajeev Jayavant want to change that. They founded RareNet at the McGovern institute. 🧠

The findings, by Fan Wang and colleagues, are published in @NeuroCellPress today: cell.com/neuron/abstrac…

MIT neuroscientists have discovered neurons in the brain that act like "ruler tick marks," precisely mapping the space around your body. Using mouse whiskers as a model, they revealed the elegant neural code behind spatial awareness. mcgovern.mit.edu/2026/06/25/an-…

Check out Preston Hess's @phess002 interactive blog, where he explains his auditory research in @JoshHMcDermott's lab—and gives you the opportunity to test the cocktail party effect for yourself!: rphess.cargo.site/Solving-the-co…

What happens when a former MIT football captain who majored in computation and cognition + minored in design and music comes to McGovern @mitbrainandcog for his PhD? He builds a speaker room that solves the "cocktail party" problem, of course. 💥

The Open Mind study @mitpress by @aliciamchen + @rebecca_saxe is out today: direct.mit.edu/opmi/article/d…

New research from @rebecca_saxe shows that our expectations about generosity fundamentally shift based on relationship dynamics. mcgovern.mit.edu/2026/06/13/wou…