Miller Lab at MIT

09/04/2026

The Brain May Be Organizing Itself Into Thought
A new theory argues that cognition isn't just wired into the brain — it may be assembled, moment by moment, by traveling electrical waves
https://vocal.media/longevity/the-brain-may-be-organizing-itself-into-thought

A new theory argues that cognition isn't just wired into the brain — it may be assembled, moment by moment, by traveling electrical waves

09/02/2026

Podcast: How the Brain Compresses Our Noisy World
Conor Feehly discuss how the brain manages to categorize things, including the new theory of Lisa Barrett and Earl K. Miller.

If you are well rested and full, your brain tells you that a bruised overripe apple is a piece of subpar fruit to be passed over. However, if you are exhausted and hungry, an overripe apple is categorized as much-needed food. But how is the brain able to categorize that same apple in these situation...

08/24/2026

A New Framework for How the Brain Compresses Our Noisy World
https://quantamagazine.org/a-new-framework-for-how-the-brain-compresses-our-noisy-world-20260824/
An updated view of categorization reflects the modern understanding that the nervous system is more of a prediction engine than a filing cabinet.

An updated view of categorization reflects the modern understanding that the nervous system is more of a prediction engine than a filing cabinet.

08/22/2026

Brain Waves Look Like Exhaust and Behave Like an Engine

Three drugs knock you out by different routes and leave the wiring intact. What they wreck is the brain's rhythm, and that turns out to be the point.

08/19/2026

New theory! The brain's ability to generate cognition and consciousness arises from analog computations carried out by electrical waves.

The brain's ability to generate quick, nimble volitional thought—and a unified awareness of thought and experience—arises from analog computations carried out by electrical waves, MIT neuroscientists argue in a new review

08/19/2026

New theory: Analog Cognition and Consciousness

Thoughts, actions, and our unified sense of consciousness may emerge from electric field wave patterns, which both shape and are shaped by neuron firing to create coherent mental states.
https://www.jneurosci.org/content/46/33/e0711262026

Cognition and consciousness may arise from bidirectional interactions between neuronal spiking and rhythmic electric field activity (brain waves). Goal-directed behavior relies on top-down control to coordinate large neural populations into low-dimensional, task-oriented dynamics. Brain waves are we...

08/04/2026

New discovery! Anesthesia may disrupt consciousness by weakening how brain regions influence one another. This is uneven, which may help explain bursts of activity seen under anesthesia.

Disruption of interareal control during propofol anesthesia
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.28.741350v1

08/03/2026

The Miller Lab says a goodbye to Ignacio "Nacho" Castillejo Ruiz.

07/31/2026

Lab hijinks in 2014

07/13/2026