Study helps explain why motivation to learn declines with age

Research on mice suggests aging affects a brain circuit critical for learning to make some types of decisions.

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Tags: neuroscience aging research behavior school-of-science brain-and-cognitive-sciences mcgovern-institute

Study suggests animals think probabilistically to distinguish contexts

New statistical model may help scientists understand how animals infer whether surroundings are novel or haven’t changed enough to be a new context.

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Tags: biology memory research behavior school-of-science brain-and-cognitive-sciences center-for-brains-minds-and-machines picower-institute

Data systems that learn to be better

Storage tool developed at MIT CSAIL adapts to what its datasets’ users want to search.

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Tags: machine-learning artificial-intelligence data research behavior school-of-engineering computer-science-and-technology algorithms computer-science-and-artificial-intelligence-laboratory-csail electrical-engineering-and-computer-science-eecs

What can your microwave tell you about your health?

An MIT system uses wireless signals to measure in-home appliance usage to better understand health tendencies.

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Tags: machine-learning internet-of-things covid-19 research sensors wireless behavior school-of-engineering computer-science-and-technology computer-science-and-artificial-intelligence-laboratory-csail health-sciences-and-technology electrical-engineering-and-computer-science-eecs mit-schwarzman-college-of-computing

“She” goes missing from presidential language

Even when people believed Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 election, they did not use “she” to refer to the next president.

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Tags: linguistics politics language women research behavior school-of-science brain-and-cognitive-sciences national-institutes-of-health-nih

Controlling attention with brain waves

Study shows that people can boost attention by manipulating their own alpha brain waves.

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Tags: neuroscience research behavior school-of-science brain-and-cognitive-sciences mcgovern-institute

Predicting people's driving personalities

System from MIT CSAIL sizes up drivers as selfish or selfless. Could this help self-driving cars navigate in traffic?

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Tags: robotics machine-learning artificial-intelligence robots research autonomous-vehicles transportation automobiles behavior school-of-engineering computer-science-and-artificial-intelligence-laboratory-csail computer-vision electrical-engineering-and-computer-science-eecs

Investigating the power of group think

Political science doctoral student Clara Vandeweerdt studies how identity shapes beliefs on complex political topics such as climate change.

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Tags: politics media graduate social-sciences research behavior students media-lab school-of-architecture-and-planning school-of-humanities-arts-and-social-sciences political-science science-communications postdoctoral

Study finds hub linking movement and motivation in the brain

Detailed observations in the lateral septum indicate region processes movement and reward information to help direct behavior.

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Tags: neuroscience biology research behavior school-of-science alumniae brain-and-cognitive-sciences picower-institute

Perception of musical pitch varies across cultures

How people interpret musical notes depends on the types of music they have listened to, researchers find.

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Tags: neuroscience music research behavior school-of-science brain-and-cognitive-sciences center-for-brains-minds-and-machines national-institutes-of-health-nih mcgovern-institute