Tianqiao & Chrissy Chen Institute – Change perception, change your world | Chen Institute

Caltech neuroscientists are making promising progress toward showing that a device known as a brain–machine interface (BMI), which they developed to implant into the brains of patients who have lost the ability to speak, could one day help all such patients communicate by simply thinking and not speaking or miming. Read more on the TCCI […]

Every year, more than 795,000 people experience having a stroke, often resulting in brain damage that impairs their ability to speak, walk, or perform tasks. Fortunately, in many cases, these abilities can be regained through physical therapy. With practice, our brains have remarkable abilities to rewire and repair themselves after damage. Researchers in the laboratory […]

Many of us would love the superpower to fly, and for good reason: Flight offers a crucial evolutionary advantage. Flying enables an animal to travel large distances quickly, in search of food and new habitats, while expending far less energy than walking. Through flight, insects colonized the planet and fostered the massive diversification of flowering […]

For decades, researchers believed that lamprey—eel-like jawless fish—did not have sympathetic neurons, which are a part of the peripheral nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system is made up of nerves that target internal organs throughout the body, including the heart, pancreas, and gut. Persistent activity of the sympathetic nervous system is required to maintain homeostasis, […]