The McGovern Institute research is centered on systems neuroscience, which looks at how neurons function within larger brain systems to mediate complex behavior, in both health and disease.

Our faculty share core interests in three interrelated research areas: perception, cognition, and action. Their research goes from molecules to mind, from genes and proteins to cells, tissue cultures, and living animals ranging from worms to humans. Their laboratories use - and develop - sophisticated methods for genetic and computational analyses, electrophysiological recordings, and non-invasive brain imaging in the new Martinos Imaging Center at the McGovern Institute.

Perception, Cognition, Action

It seems so straightforward to recognize a familiar object or move a finger. But that apparent ease is a tribute to the brain's incredible ability to filter and process enormously complex information without any seeming effort on our part. As an example of how the brain integrates these three brain functions, consider a train coming towards you.

Perception enables you to notice the sights, sounds, and vibrations of the train.

Cognition allows you to evaluate this information and form the emotional reaction of fear, the recognition of danger, the focused attention on the train, the calculation of its speed, and the decision to act.

Action, the behavioral result of perception and cognition, saves your life as you jump out of the way of the approaching train.

A serious dysfunction in any of these areas could keep you from responding appropriately in a situation, and many brain disorders involve problems in one or more of these functions. For example, autism causes dysfunctions in social cognition, such as in how people evaluate social input like a smile or a frown. Parkinson's disease manifests itself in motor difficulty. But autism also causes clumsiness, and Parkinson's may cause mentally diffuse thoughts, and both entail altered perceptual sensitivities. Unless we understand the whole system, we will design treatments that may address isolated symptoms, but not necessarily the underlying disorder.

Here are some examples of how the McGovern Institute faculty investigate the overlapping fields of perception, cognition, and action.