brain+cognitive sciences news Fall 2006

NEW IMAGING CENTER was established between MGH and MIT NEWS FROM THE BRINGS POWERFUL TOOLS allowing freer access to the machines BENCH TO BCS RESEARCH for departmental investigators. As more faculty members with imag- Unraveling the Mysteries of Alzheimer’s The history of the new Martinos ing components to their research pro- Why do some people live to be 100 Imaging Center mirrors the history grams were recruited to BCS, demand without falling victim to Alzheimer’s of imaging at MIT. The longstanding for time on the MGH machines began disease? Li-Huei Tsai wants to know. interest in brain imaging at BCS began to strain their availability and the need Beta-amyloid (a protein fragment that with the early work of Suzanne Corkin, for an imaging facility at MIT became accumulates in the brains of Alzheimer’s whose research on neural mechanisms increasingly clear. In spite of the obvi- patients) is a telltale sign of the disease, of memory led her to analyze skull ous need, it took some years and the which affects 4 million Americans, most films and pneumoencephalograms convergence of multiple events for over age 65. Normally, the body man- of patients with brain damage, World the vision of a local imaging facility to ages to break down and eliminate these War II veterans, Alzheimer’s patients, be realized. The primary catalyst for fragments, but in the aging brain, they and, most significantly, patient HM. change came in the late 1990s when tend to form insoluble plaques. To add The methodological advances in Thanassis and Marina Martinos com- to the mystery, some people function Corkin’s work since those early days mitted to then-MIT President Chuck relatively normally with plaques nestled closely reflect the progress of new Vest that they would sponsor the among their neurons, while others scanning techniques, encompassing founding of an imaging science center. are virtually incapacitated. “There are first Computerized Tomography (CT) This center, named for their daughter, people with a significant plaque load and Positron Emission Tomography would focus on applications of imag- who can keep up with their daily lives,” (PET) scans, then functional Magnetic ing to understand mental illness and said Tsai, who has appointments in Resonance Imaging (fMRI). neuroscience. the Department of Brain and Cognitive As MIT initially had no facilities for this Initial funding from the Martinos Sciences and the Picower Institute type of work, Corkin was forced to look family was given in support of the for Learning and Memory. “Obviously, elsewhere, eventually conducting most MGH/Charlestown facility, which was other factors are determining whether of her brain scans at the Charlestown re-named the Athinoula A. Martinos they have full-blown Alzheimer’s.” Tsai, campus of the Massachusetts General Biomedical Imaging Center at MGH; who as a child in Taipei witnessed her Massachusetts Hospital (MGH). With the recruitment of and for a number of years, BCS grandmother’s descent into dementia, is Institute of Nancy Kanwisher and others in the late researchers continued the commute determined to unravel the thorny ques- Technology 1990s, BCS reached the needed criti- across town. Meanwhile, a team that tions associated with neurodegenerative cal mass in brain imaging research and included Martha Gray and Daniel and psychiatric disorders. things began to snowball. Members of Shannon of HST, Corkin, Kanwisher, Yes Virginia, There is LTP in Learning the Corkin and Kanwisher labs began Emilio Bizzi and Mriganka Sur of BCS, Researchers in Mark Bear’s lab report spending many hours in Charlestown, Bruce Rosen of MGH and HST, and in the August, 2006 issue of Science and in the year 2000, an agreement Continued inside . . . that certain key connections among neurons get stronger when we learn. “We show what everyone has always If you would like to believed, that long-term potentiation be put on the is indeed induced in the hippocampus newsletter mailing when learning occurs,” says Bear. “This list, or have is a big deal for neuroscientists because information you such evidence has been absent for the would like to have 30-plus years we have known about published, LTP.” please contact: Judith A New Approach to Imaging Brain Rauchwarger Activity Human Resources If you want to see precisely what the Administrator 10 billion neurons in a person’s brain are [email protected] doing, a good way to start is to track calcium as it flows into neurons when they fire. To that end, Alan Jasanoff has developed a new nano-sized calcium- sensing contrast agent that is detect- BCS Alumni Please able by magnetic resonance imaging Keep In Touch Denise Heintze (MRI) scanners. The new agent, which Academic incorporates extra-strength molecular- Administrator A technician from Siemens explains the workings of the new 3T human magnet to Magdalena Sauvage sized magnets, results in large MRI [email protected] and Technical Instructor Patricia Harlan. Continued inside . . . Fall 2006

Imaging Center ate new collaborations among fac- function relationships in the brain. Continued from Page 1 ulty in many areas. In July of this year, Martha Gray reiterates that both Rebecca Saxe, the newest addition to footprints of the Martinos Center, the MIT’s Dean Robert Silbey and Provost the BCS faculty, along with Gabrieli and one at MGH and the one at MIT, are Robert Brown worked to define a vision colleagues, submitted the first paper for unique. “We have here the opportunity for an on-campus facility. Convinced which brain scanning was entirely done to bring together the best biology, the that MIT was poised to make enormous on the MIT campus. best medicine and the best engineering progress in this field, the Martinos And there is much more to come. in the world. Biomedical imaging is an family provided a substantial initial gift Assistant Professor Chris Moore, along enormously important enabling technol- and the cornerstone of the facility in with lab members Junjie Liu and Mitul ogy, for biology as well as for medicine. Building 46 was thus laid. Desai, is already designing the next By bringing the horsepower of a place After 2000, one like MIT to bear on phase after another issues of brain imag- began to fall into ing, we can really place, and progress impact biomedical shifted into high research in ways gear. The facility that are not going to was included in the happen in industry. Building 46 program- The problems that ming providing a we can address, and committed space for the people who can Functional MRI images of the human brain can identify housing the MRI magnets. A address them, are com- centers of activity based on increased blood flow. year later, with the ground- pletely unparalleled at any Images courtesy of Rebecca Saxe breaking for the new build- other place.” generation of magnetic microcoils, ing, the Center had a clearly delineated When asked if the Center was the aimed at delivering resolution down to space within the McGovern Institute. major factor in his decision to come to less than a tenth of a millimeter. “It is a Leadership for the new Center came in MIT, Gabrieli pauses a moment, then really great tool to have in your tool-kit,” the form of Professor John Gabrieli who says with a laugh that he would have says Chris Moore, “this gives us a totally was recruited to MIT from Stanford in come anyway. “MIT’s explosion of neu- safe and non-invasive technique for 2005. Gabrieli wears many hats, hold- roscience opportunities is hugely attrac- imaging single layers in cortex, or even ing joint appointments in BCS and HST tive. It is a historically good moment single cortical columns.” Moore and as well as serving as co-Director of the to be here, because of the focus on his lab hope to combine physiological Clinical Research Center, Associate neuroscience.” He adds “But having the recordings, optical imaging and brain Director of the Martinos Center at MGH, Center makes it fun to wake up here in scanning to maximize resolution as well and Director of the Martinos Imaging the morning!” Center at MIT. The first magnet for as coverage, as they probe structure- human imaging at MIT was installed in 2005, going on line early in the sum- News From the Bench In this instance, the self-assembling mer of 2006 when Nancy Kanwisher Continued from Page 1 peptides served as an internal matrix on produced the first brain scan on the contrast changes capable of producing which brain cells could re-grow. Related machine. very high-resolution images. The work papers by the group appear in the The Center, housed on the ground is reported in the September, 2006 August, 2006 issue of Chemistry Today, floor Building 46, has three bays. One online edition of the Proceedings of the and October, 2006 issue of Current bay houses the first 3 Tesla human National Academy of Sciences. Pharmaceutical Design. magnet, while another has a 9.4 T mag- Nanotechnology Breakthroughs in Learning is in the Eye of the Beholder net (bought recently with a gift from an Medicine The artist’s trained eye can detect anonymous donor). The third bay is Jerry Schneider and Rutledge Ellis- distinctions others can’t; musicians currently empty, awaiting the develop- Behnke have recently reported several pick up subtle changes in tone lost on ment of new technology. The variety findings that illustrate the remarkable the nonmusical. Brain researchers call of machines reflects the diversity of potential for the use of nanotechnology these abilities perceptual learning. Mark research conducted in the Center. In in research and medicine. In the October Bear and colleagues have uncovered general, the higher T translates into 10, 2006 online edition of Nanomedicine a mechanism for this phenomenon. greater image resolution but results the BCS team along with Hong Kong “Understanding this type of percep- in smaller fields that can be scanned. University researchers have shown that tual learning is important because it can The 3T magnet has a 60 cm bore, and some simple biodegradable liquids can reveal mechanisms of implicit memory is a whole body imager, though it is stop bleeding in wounded rodents with- formation and might be exploited to expected to be used only for imaging in seconds, a development that could promote rehabilitation after brain dam- human brains. The opening for the 9.4 significantly impact medicine. “We have age. Detailed knowledge of how prac- T magnet is only 12 cm, not suitable for found a way to stop bleeding, in less tice changes brain chemistry is likely human work, but it does have sub-mil- than 15 seconds, that could revolution- to suggest new pharmacological and limeter resolution. ize bleeding control,” says Rutledge. behavioral therapies to facilitate these Already the facility is humming with Earlier this year, the same researchers changes,” said Professor Bear. The activity. All protocols are in place and reported that a similar liquid was able study appeared in the August, 2006 subjects are being run. The Center is to partially restore sight in hamsters issue of Neuron. breaking barriers, serving to potenti- that had had their visual tract severed. INCOMING BCS GRADUATE STUDENTS A DIVERSE GROUP

Ben Auerbach was born and raised a rabid Bills fan in Buffalo, NY. He attended Cornell University as a biology major with a concentration in neurobiology and behavior, and his research interests are in linking cellular mechanisms with behavior. He is especially interested in neuronal plasticity and the dynamic balance between specialization and integration the brain must achieve, and plans to continue doing academic research as a career. Outside of science, he enjoys playing sports, especially soccer and basketball and is also into music. He plays piano (mostly blues and jazz) and is starting to tinker with production. Lauren Barr came to Boston in July, 2004, after 18 years in L to R women: Rachel Schecter, Caroline Runyan, Lauren Barr, Susan Su Pendleton, IN, and 4 years at the University of Pennsylvania L to R men: Todd Thompson, Greg Hale (back left corner), Josh Sarinana (with glasses), Ben Auerbach, Tim where she earned degrees in biochemistry and biotechnology. Brady, Mark Howe, Steven Piantadosi, Cheston Tan (white shirt front row), Jim Mutch She has spent the last 2 years as a medical student in the HST program where she thoroughly enjoyed perfecting the art of Steven Piantadosi grew up in Baltimore and attended UNC Chapel Hill where he cadaver dissection and practicing IVs on her classmates’ arms. majored in mathematics and linguistics. He is interested in understanding language She has joined the Littleton Lab where she studies the molecu- acquisition and processing from computational and biological perspectives. His Drosophila lar mechanisms of synaptic plasticity in . She hobbies include sailing, scuba diving, reading, and playing accordion on the streets plans to complete medical school and specialize in anesthe- of the North End for money. siology combining research with clinical practice. Outside of Caroline Runyan the lab, Lauren is a fantasy football champion and collector (in from Indiana, Pennsylvania went to Allegheny College as an quantity) of shoes. undergrad followed by time in the Laboratory of Neuropsychology at NIMH where she studied neurogenesis in the adult primate. At MIT, she hopes to study cellular Tim Brady was born on Long Island and went to college at and molecular plasticity and their relationship to behavior in the adult. Yale University, where he majored in Cognitive Science and Joshua Sariñana conducted research in a vision and cognitive neuroscience , a native of the Bay Area and a graduate of UCLA arrived in lab. He is interested in studying scene understanding, visual Boston directly from a vacation in Europe and London. He hopes to build on his search, and learning from visual context. He enjoys running extensive research as an undergraduate to study the molecular, cellular, and cog- and reading just about everything, as well as his frequent trips nitive aspects of memory, learning, and choice as they relate to consciousness. to New York where most of his high school and college friends Aside from neuroscience, Josh is also passionate about photography, philosophy are now living. He was recently engaged to a psychology grad and is more than willing to show anyone his pictures or jump into a discussion on student at Harvard. phenomenology. Rachel Schecter Greg Hale hails from New Brunswick, New Jersey, where grew up in New Jersey just outside of Philadelphia and he studied psychology and neuroscience at Rutgers. He is attended Rutgers as an undergrad, where she researched regulation of vesicle interested in learning invivo physiology techniques to study fusion in yeast, specifically the role of the protein Sec1. Her interest is primarily systems-level questions in learning and memory, and hopes in cell biology, but one of the reasons she chose BCS was the prospect of being to some day run his own electrophysiology lab and to write able to learn a little bit of everything. She wants to focus on the neural phenomena science for general public consumption. Outside the lab he that support learning and expects to further narrow her focus as she learns more. juggles (a lot), and claims that juggling leads to some interest- Outside of academics, Rachel loves to watch football (the Eagles), play soccer, go Lost ing changes in cortex. to the beach, watch , and sleep in. Susan Su Mark Howe is proud of his Wisconsin origins. He answers is from Virgnia and went to Duke. One unique interest is her study of the inevitable two questions about his provenance with: yes, he Southern foods such as sweet tea, North Carolina BBQ, Cajun fried chicken, but- likes cheese, and no, he is not a Packers fan. Mark graduated tery biscuits, and hushpuppies. Susan hope to find a great career (hopefully involv- from UW-Madison with a degree in neuroscience and plans to ing food) after completing the program in cellular and molecular neuroscience. narrow his focus to the study of neural circuitry at the systems Cheston Tan is from Singapore, and studied Computer Science at UC Berkeley. level. In his free time, he enjoys outdoor activities such as After college, he returned to Singapore to serve for 2 years in the military, where he hiking, biking, bird watching, golfing, and wandering with no was a lieutenant in a heliborne infantry unit. He is interested in computation in the particular destination in mind. Eons from now he hopes to be neocortex, and sees research in vision as a means to that end. He has also dabbled enjoying a lifelong career in academia as a professor. in networking, virtual reality, and bioinformatics. Outside the lab, he enjoys soccer, Although initially trained as a computer scientist Jim Mutch inline skating and long-distance running (he hopes to run the Boston marathon). has gained tremendous respect for the brain through the Cheston is also interested in management, leadership, and public policy, especially contemplation of AI problems. He recently completed a in the areas of education and innovation. Master’s degree in computer science at the University of British Todd Thompson, who grew up in Texas, took a roundabout route to Cambridge, Columbia where he worked on improving the performance of a stopping along the way for undergraduate work at Rice, some IT consulting in biologically-inspired model of visual object recognition. Prior to Virginia, some field biology at the Point Reyes National Seashore, and some imag- returning to academia he was a professional software develop- ing work at Berkeley. At MIT, he is looking forward to studying attention and working er. Jim’s interests and future course of study are writ broadly; memory in humans, and is especially interested in techniques that could enhance he wants to know how the mind works. A lifelong Vancouverite, those abilities in clinical and normal populations. When not doing research, you Jim could often be found running up local mountains – some- will probably find him trying to improve his travel photography or playing any of a thing he will miss in flat Cambridge. variety of games, from poker to chess to obscure German board games. FACULTY PROFILE: focus on brain development. She joined biking. Li-Huei believes that a mother LI-HUEI TSAI Harvard Medical School in 1994, work- should be the ultimate role model, and ing on a mouse model for Alzheimer’s, she freely acknowledges the direction Li-Huei Tsai was not exposed to sci- seeking to understand how learning and and inspiration she got from her own ence while growing up. In fact, her memory were affected by the disease – mother – a relationship she hopes to parents worked for the government; share with her daughter. She feels her father was a diplomat who rep- that women have an extra burden resented the Taiwanese government trying to balance career and family in Japan. She had always dreamed, and she is mindful of the fact that however, of going to Africa and work- everything she does will have a pro- ing with wildlife and so she attended found influence on her daughter. veterinary school in Taiwan. At the When she does allow herself time, vets spent much of their time some time away, Li-Huei loves visit- treating farm animals, and by the ing Auckland, New Zealand, where end of her training Li-Huei was her parents retired. Once or twice a no longer sure that this was the year, if she is traveling to a particu- career path she wanted. Seeking larly exotic destination she will try to more options, she applied to the take her family with her. Other pas- veterinary sciences department at times include reading good novels of the UW-Madison. While there, she any kind, and listening to opera. Mah enrolled in courses that exposed her jong, which she once played with to molecular biology. She became great regularity and at which she so interested in this field that she was quite proficient, is a continuing applied to and was accepted by interest though often limited to the the Ph.D. program at the University traditional game on New Year’s eve. of Texas in Dallas. As a post-doc Li-Huei considers herself extreme- work that she continues today. In 1997, she worked at Cold Springs Harbor ly fortunate, finding fulfillment in both she was named an HHMI Investigator applying molecular biology techniques work and family. Looking ahead, she and, after extensive recruiting efforts, to cancer research under the guidance believes she is at the ideal site to further was lured to the Picower Institute in of Ed Harlow. When Ed Harlow moved develop her research goals. Being sur- early 2006. to Massachusetts General Hospital in rounded by a visionary group of highly 1990, Li-Huei decided to follow him. Li-Huei, like most highly success- motivated colleagues is perhaps the At MGH, Li-Huei began to interact ful people, is careful in rationing her greatest reward of all – excepting, of with developmental neurobiologists, efforts which perhaps explains why she course, the many rewards of friends particularly pediatric neurologist Verne devotes all of her free time to her family. and family. Caviness. When she finally sought a She and her daughter Jessica are espe- faculty position it was with the objective cially close and they engage in many of making a fresh start by switching to a activities such as hiking, fishing, and

AWARDS AND HONORS FACULTY In July 2006, Mark Bear was awarded the William & Enid Rosen Research Award for outstanding contributions to the understanding of Fragile X by The National Fragile X Foundation. Emilio Bizzi was elected President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His installation was on October 7. Emery Brown was elected Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering and Fellow of the American Statistical Association. Alan Jasanoff was awarded a 2006 McKnight Technological Innovations in Neuroscience Award for his work on cellular- level functional MRI with calcium imaging agents. Tomaso Poggio was named to the Scientific Advisory Board of the ISI foundation (Turin) and of the Comitato di Esperti dell’ISICT (Genoa). Molly Potter delivered the keynote speech at the annual meeting of the Psychonomics Society in Houston on November 16. Her talk was titled “Understanding Scenes and Sentences: The Role of Conceptual Short-Term Memory.”

STAFF Administrative Assistant Bettiann McKay was given a spot award for her generous assitance to not only her regular supervisors, but others as well.

POST DOCS Christie Chung was presented with the Brayfield Award for the most meritorious dissertation at Claremont Graduate University. She also won the American Psychological Association Division 20 Proposed Research Award at the post- doctoral level. BCS SCENES Fall 2006

ALUMNI NEWS

Walter Gillett (M.A. ’88) took his degree in Brain and California, about an hour north of San Francisco, and Rose Cognitive Sciences and returned to the software industry was recently promoted to the position of Division Director of as a software engineer. He is now working at ITA Software the Ecological Services Division of Circuit Rider Productions, in Cambridge, an MIT startup, on an airline reservation sys- a nonprofit dedicated to preserving and restoring threatened tem. His wife, Sharon biological sys- Gillett, was a tems throughout researcher at MIT NEW BEGINNINGS California. until recently and has James DiCarlo Mark Sommer just enrolled at the Assistant Professor and wife Julie welcomed their first child, a daughter, Mia Ann DiCarlo, on Friday, October 13. (PhD ’95) did post- BU business school doctoral work at the to get a DBA in Professor Ted Gibson and graduate student Evelina Fedorenko are NEI/NIH Laboratory information systems. engaged and will be married in the spring. for Sensorimotor They have two sons, Graduate student Retsina Meyer and her partner, Reuben Goodman, have Research, and then, Max age 16 and Seth just become engaged. in 2004, became an age 7. Assistant Professor Terra Barnes Frank J. Popper Graduate student and Andy Young, owner of Paragon in the Dept. of (BS Urban Studies Interactive, were married on August 12. Neuroscience and ‘66) teaches land-use Audra Van Wart, a Postdoctoral Associate, was married September 3, 2006 the Center for and environmental to Greg Valdez, a postdoc at Harvard. the Neural Basis planning at Rutgers of Cognition at Professor Ted Adelson and Research Scientist Ruth Rosenholz celebrated and Princeton. He the University of the birth of their second daughter, Robin on August 25. She joins sister has a doctorate in Pittsburgh. He is Sarah in their new home. political science from doing research on Harvard University. the role of feed- He chairs the board back pathways in of the Great Plains Restoration Council, has served two the brain during normal behavior and schizophrenia. terms on the board of the American Planning Association, Cristina Sorrentino (PhD ’98) is the Project Director for is on the board of the National Clearinghouse for Frontier Psychopathology and Treatment of Compulsive Hoarding at Communities, and is a member of the Prairie Writers Circle the BU School of Social Work. She is particularly interested at the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas, and of the editorial in young children’s and adult’s assumptions about proper boards of Housing Policy Debate and the Online Journal of noun syntax vs. adjective syntax as a function of animacy or Rural Research and Policy. With his wife, Deborah Popper, inanimacy of referent. he originated the concept of the Buffalo Commons as a Louis Toth vision of a sustainable environmental and economic future (PhD ‘95) is an Assistant Professor at Boston for the rural Great Plains. He specializes in regional, Western, University School of Medicine in the Dept of Anatomy & frontier, and decline planning. Neurobiology. His current research focuses on the coding of information in mammalian cerebral cortex; organization of Rose Roberts (PhD ‘98) is married, with two daughters: dorsal and ventral streams in human and primate cortex; and Shannon, who will be 4 in November, and Morgan, born the direct effects of TMS on neuronal tissue. June 3 (almost 4 months old). They live near Santa Rosa, brain+cognitive sciences NON PROFIT ORG. U.S. Postage Paid Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA 46-2005 Permit No. 54016 77 Massachusetts Ave. Cambridge, MA 02139