Seminar Papers
(from MIT news)
The wisdom of crowds is not always perfect. But two scholars at MIT’s Sloan Neuroeconomics Lab, along with a colleague at Princeton University, have found a way to make it better. Their method, explained in a newly published paper, uses a technique the researchers call the “surprisingly popular” algorithm to better extract correct answers from large groups of people. As such, it could refine wisdom-of-crowds surveys, which are used in political and economic forecasting, as well as many other collective activities, from pricing artworks to grading scientific research proposals.
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http://news.mit.edu/2017/algorithm-better-wisdom-crowds-0125
(from MIT news)
In adults, certain regions of the brain’s visual cortex respond preferentially to specific types of input, such as faces or objects — but how and when those preferences arise has long puzzled neuroscientists. One way to help answer that question is to study the brains of very young infants and compare them to adult brains. However, scanning the brains of awake babies in an MRI machine has proven difficult. Now, neuroscientists at MIT have overcome that obstacle, adapting their MRI scanner to make it easier to scan infants’ brains as the babies watch movies featuring different types of visual input. Using these data, the team found that in some ways, the organization of infants’ brains is surprisingly similar to that of adults. Specifically, brain regions that respond to faces in adults do the same in babies, as do regions that respond to scenes.
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http://news.mit.edu/2017/mri-scans-baby-brain-visual-cortex-0110
(figure from MITnew)
Our emotional state is governed partly by a tiny brain structure known as the amygdala, which is responsible for processing positive emotions such as happiness, and negative ones such as fear and anxiety.
A new study from MIT finds that these emotions are controlled by two populations of neurons that are genetically programmed to encode memories of either fearful or pleasurable events. Furthermore, these sets of cells inhibit each other, suggesting that an imbalance between these populations may be responsible for disorders such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
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http://news.mit.edu/2016/two-neuron-populations-encode-happy-fearful-memories-1017
(figure from MIT news)
Scientists hoping to get a glimpse of molecules that control brain activity have devised a new probe that allows them to image these molecules without using any chemical or radioactive labels. Currently the gold standard approach to imaging molecules in the brain is to tag them with radioactive probes. However, these probes offer low resolution and they can’t easily be used to watch dynamic events, says Alan Jasanoff, an MIT professor of biological engineering and brain and cognitive sciences.
Jasanoff and his colleagues have developed new sensors consisting of proteins designed to detect a particular target, which causes them to dilate blood vessels in the immediate area. This produces a change in blood flow that can be imaged with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or other imaging techniques.
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http://news.mit.edu/2016/radiation-free-approach-imaging-molecules-brain-mri-1202
(figure from MIT news)
In Developing Technologies for Music and Health, students design and prototype devices that explore music’s impact on health and brain functions, such as sleep, anxiety, athletic performance, pain, and even dementia. Music therapy is a well-established field, but the idea of integrating technology and data analysis into music therapy to improve a person’s well-being is where the future lies. The therapeutic, clinical, and technical applications of music in health are far-reaching, and our ever-connected world presents an exciting opportunity for the young entrepreneur.
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http://news.mit.edu/2016/where-music-and-technology-unite-1103
(Figure from MIT news)
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that’s partly responsible for feelings of happiness and for mood regulation in humans. This makes it a common target for antidepressants, which block serotonin from being reabsorbed by neurons after it has dispatched its signal, so more of it stays floating around the brain.
MIT researchers have developed an imaging technique that, for the first time, enables three-dimensional mapping of serotonin as it’s reabsorbed into neurons, across multiple regions of the living brain. This technique, the researchers say, gives an unprecedented view of serotonin dynamics, and could be a powerful tool for the research and development of antidepressants.
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http://news.mit.edu/2016/mapping-serotonin-dynamics-living-brain-1020
(Figure from MIT news)
Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder in the developed world, with around 60,000 people diagnosed in the U.S. each year. Although there is no cure for the disease, there are treatments that can reduce the severity of a patient’s symptoms. But for these treatments to be effective, clinicians need a method to regularly monitor the patient’s symptoms in the home.
In a paper published today in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers at MIT and elsewhere describe a technique they have developed to monitor Parkinson’s disease progression as patients interact with a computer keyboard.
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http://news.mit.edu/2016/keyboard-monitoring-parkinsons-symptoms
(Figure from MIT news)
MIT neuroscientists have discovered connections deep within the brain that appear to form a communication pathway between areas that control emotion, decision-making, and movement. The researchers suspect that these connections, which they call striosome-dendron bouquets, may be involved in controlling how the brain makes decisions that are influenced by emotion or anxiety. This circuit may also be one of the targets of the neural degeneration seen in Parkinson’s disease.
They were able to find these connections using a technique developed at MIT known as expansion microscopy, which enables scientists to expand brain tissue before imaging it. This produces much higher-resolution images than would otherwise be possible with conventional microscopes.
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http://news.mit.edu/2016/neural-connections-linked-emotional-decision-making-0919
(Figure from MIT news)
The researchers from MIT team found that they could predict the child’s visual word form area (VMFA), who was in before learning reading. They used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and diffusion-weighted imaging in order to trace the connection between the VMFA and other brain area. The researchers recruited some children, and took the scan twice. One is when the children were 5 years old (i.e. before learning reading), and the other one is when they were 8 years old (i.e. after learning reading). Even the child who doesn’t know how to read (so there is no VWFA), there are pre-existing connectivity pattern for the VWFA which has different connectivity compare to other brain area. Thus, from this result, the researchers suggest that it could helpful to identify the risk of developing dyslexia or other reading difficulties.
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There were unknown regions. However, by the Human Connectome Project, the researchers could identify around 100 new brain regions. To identify brain regions, the researchers used advanced scanners and artificial intelligence programs. In addition, they recorded high-resolution images, during the tests on memory, language and other tasks relate to thought. The researchers hope that these investigation, the updated brain map, will help their further work, and the further work from these identifications would be finding the connection between the brain regions.
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