Neuroscience

Ask Thomas Jessell why he has dedicated his career to understanding the neurobiology of movement, and he puts it in simple terms: “Movement is the overt expression of all behaviors—without movement, intent and desire can be planned and felt but never realized.” 

The Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute has named David M. Greenberg as its first executive director. The Zuckerman Institute was established in 2012 with a $200 million gift from New York philanthropist and business leader Mortimer B. Zuckerman. The Institute will bring together 1,000 scientists at the Jerome L. Greene Science Center, the first building of the Manhattanville campus.

Nima Mesgarani, assistant professor of electrical engineering, is the lead author of a new study on how speech sounds are identified by the human brain, offering an unprecedented insight into the basis of human language. 

The Vilcek Foundation named Thomas M. Jessell as the winner of the 2014 Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science. 

Using high-resolution functional MRI (fMRI) imaging in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and in mouse models of the disease, Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers have clarified three fundamental issues about Alzheimer’s: where it starts, why it starts there, and how it spreads. 

Min and his team recently developed a new imaging technique to pinpoint exactly where and when cells produce new proteins.

Study points to possible treatments and confirms distinction between memory loss due to aging and that of Alzheimer's.

Looking at how sensory information is processed in rats, Dr. Randy Bruno found that signals are processed in two parts of the cortex simultaneously rather than in series—almost as if there are two brains.

Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger announced Dec. 17 that Mortimer B. Zuckerman has pledged $200 million to endow a Mind Brain Behavior Institute to support interdisciplinary neuroscience research and discovery by scholars across the University.

Rafael Yuste, a professor of biological sciences and neuroscience, is a leader of the Brain Activity Map Project, a massive effort to create a dynamic map of the mind. Its aim is to reconstruct a full record of neural activity, which could unlock fundamental and pathological brain processes.

A new study by Columbia Engineering researchers finds that the infant brain does not control its blood flow in the same way as the adult brain.