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Click on the links below to meet some of our scientists and learn about their research and their achievements.
Seeding solutions to bipolar disorder
Harvard researchers are pursuing three new avenues for understanding bipolar disorder.
Imagination limits
People fail to simultaneously imagine the trajectories of two independent bouncing balls.
Neural codes for innate and learned behaviors
Bence Ölveczky’s lab discovered that the neural activity patterns are different for innate and learned behaviors.
Neural basis for social connection
Catherine Dulac’s lab identified specialized neurons activated in mouse brains during times of social isolation and reunion.
This beautiful machine
Paola Arlotta takes patient skin samples and coaxes them into complex neural organoids that can exhibit the errors underlying autism and schizophrenia and be a testbed for therapeutics.
Mapping the wiring of the human brain
Jeff Lichtman’s lab mapped a piece of human brain tissue, with 57,000 cells and 150 million synapses, in complete detail.
Breakthrough Prize
Catherine Dulac received the Breakthrough Prize for her research on the neural circuits in the hypothalamus underlying female and male parenting behaviors.
Probing the language of emotion
Leah Somerville’s lab focuses on how the mind develops in adolescence.
Watching rats benefits humans
AI enabled Bence Ölveczky’s lab to identify individual variations in rat social behaviors, which may lead to insights into autism in humans.
New brain-computer interfaces
Jia Liu’s lab develops flexible electronic devices and AI systems for implantation in the brain and other organs. The aim is to treat disorders and develop diagnostic methods, for example via brain-computer interfaces.
Mapping thousands of brain cell types at the molecular level
Xiaowei Zhuang (center) has led a team of scientists to create a molecularly-defined cell atlas of the mouse brain using a technology developed in her lab.
Reducing partisanship
Joshua Greene finds that pairing members of opposing parties on the same side to compete in Tango, a specially designed quiz game, eases partisanship.
Is memory related to creative thought?
Daniel Schacter has discovered that memory is linked to future planning and creativity.
Tracking how memories are formed
Adam Cohen‘s lab developed a new technology to track the detailed synaptic changes that store memories. Future explorations can probe diseases like Alzheimer’s, marked by synaptic dysfunction that results in learning and memory impairment.
Brain Prize awarded
Haim Sompolinsky was a 2024 recipient of the Brain Prize — a prestigious international honor for neuroscience research.
Breakthrough in neural recording technology
Donhee Ham’s group mapped the connection strengths of 70,000 synapses connecting 2,000 rat neurons using a new silicon chip with 4,096 microholes.
Computer vision models reveal how we see and learn
Talia Konkle has noticed something strange: the models are working like human brains in surprising ways.
Animal learning may improve AI
Venkatesh Murthy aims to understand neural activity underlying navigational behavior for the design of new artificial learning systems.
I remember it well…I think
Elizabeth Phelps explores how emotions and traumatic experiences affect our memory.
Disentangling neural activity
Demba Ba has developed a new computational framework that allows scientists to decompose neural signals into interpretable elements.
Neurons that flash light when they fire
Adam Cohen’s lab developed a new technology to observe the electrical firing of a neuron as a flash of light, detectable by specially modified optical microscopes.
Leading computational neuroscientist joins CBS
SueYeon Chung’s research explores the principles of neural computation in the brain and artificial neural networks.
A taste for microbes
Nick Bellono lab discovered that the suckers on octopus arms are loaded with receptors that let them taste what they touch.
Turing award
Leslie Valiant was named the winner of the 2010 ACM Turing Award for his fundamental contributions to theoretical computer science, including a theory of machine learning and its extension to the human brain.
How we learn to play video games
Samuel Gershman’s insights into how our brains learn causal models of the world may help build better self-driving cars.
Our ‘intuitive physics’ constrains fictional worlds
Tomer Ullman explores “intuitive physics” — our built-in sense of how the physical world operates.
International awards for neuroscience research
Takao Hensch and Catherine Dulac have received highest national honors from Japan and France, respectively.
Detecting brain disorders
Randy Buckner identifies brain indicators exhibited prior to clinical symptoms in individuals with genetic variations that increase their risk for illness.
Animal Copies Reveal Roots of Individuality
Benjamin de Bivort has identified the origins in brain development of random variations that lead to individual differences in behavior.
How a fungus controls zombie fly brains
Carolyn Elya’s lab studies how a fungus controls fly behavior to enable the fungus to reproduce and spread.
Building computational models of brains and behavior
Florian Engert‘s lab studies how brains control behavior in detail.
Dogs’ brains and social interactions with humans
Erin Hecht studies brain-behavior links in dogs, humans, and other primates.
Axon development
Jeffrey Macklis studies molecular mechanisms driving the development, diseases, and regeneration of neurons controlling our movement.
NSF CAREER award
Cengiz Pehlevan received the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious award to early-career faculty for his theoretical work on how the brain’s neural networks learn.
Deciding to go left or right
Aravinthan Samuel‘s lab studies how neural circuits transform sensory inputs into internal representations and purposeful behavioral outputs.
How the brain predicts reward
Naoshige Uchida’s lab is advancing our understanding of how the brain learns to make good decisions.
Infections change social behavior
Yun Zhang‘s lab discovered that a bacterial infection in worms altered their social behavior.
For questions about giving online, please email kenneth_blum@harvard.edu
For questions about any of the above, please email cbs@fas.harvard.edu, or call 617-495-9765.