The human brain is remarkably adept at juggling different kinds of information, allowing us to switch rapidly between tasks and adapt our behavior as circumstances change. A new study by MIT neuroscientists takes a closer look at how the brain accomplishes this, providing evidence for flexible neural modules that may help support this cognitive versatility.

Using mice, scientists found that a group of neurons in the prefrontal cortex could switch between retaining sensory information and maintaining an action plan in working memory.

“We found that the brain doesn’t dedicate a separate group of neurons for every type of information,” says Yuma Osako, an MIT postdoc and the lead author of the new study. “Instead, it uses the same populations of neurons to perform the same computation on different kinds of information, which means the same subset of neurons can hold both an action and a sensory stimulus in working memory,”

The findings also lend support to a longstanding theory known as compositionality—the idea that cognition can be constructed by combining and reusing neural components.

“One of the solutions that’s always been proposed has been this idea of compositionality — that you can take pieces of cognition that perform part of a task and reuse them in another task,” says Timothy Buschman, a professor at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, and the senior author of the paper, in a statement. 

Another way to see this is to view it as “cognitive Legos,” Buschman suggests. Instead of building a new neural circuit when a new task starts, the brain reuses existing circuits and combines them in different ways.

The Test 

To see how this neural network operates, the scientists trained mice to compare two tones and respond depending on whether the sounds matched. As the mice performed the tasks, the scientists recorded electrical activity from thousands of neurons. 

“When mice do tasks that test whether memory computations can be reused, the answer is they are,” notes Mriganka Sur, the Newton Professor of Neuroscience at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory. “There are subspaces of functional activity in the prefrontal cortex that can be the substrate of mixing and matching toward flexible cognition.”

Two important components of the task allowed the researchers to examine how different kinds of information were maintained. First, the mice had to remember the initial tone for a short period. They then had to retain their decision and form an action plan.

In the parietal cortex, neurons were dedicated to storing information about the tone. However, researchers found something different in the prefrontal cortex: a specific group of neurons could switch roles.

During one stage of the task, the circuit helped maintain a sensory memory. During another, the same population was involved in maintaining an action plan. This flexibility may help explain how a finite number of neurons can support an enormous range of behaviors.

“Our everyday life requires us to temporarily hold many different kinds of information. One big question is how the brain can represent an unlimited variability of information using only a finite number of neurons,” Osako says.

The researchers view these reusable neural circuits as potential building blocks for flexible cognition. More broadly, the findings suggest that the brain may be less like a machine filled with components dedicated to individual tasks and more like an interconnected system that continually repurposes its existing neural resources.

The recent study appeared in the journal Nature.

Chrissy Newton is a PR professional and the founder of VOCAB Communications. She currently appears on The Discovery Channel and Max and hosts the Rebelliously Curious podcast, which can be found on YouTube and on all audio podcast streaming platforms. Follow her on X: @ChrissyNewton, Instagram: @BeingChrissyNewton, and chrissynewton.com. To contact Chrissy with a story, please email chrissy @ thedebrief.org.

A new study suggests that deep brain stimulation may do more than control movement disorders: it could also help repair social behavior disrupted by pain experienced early in life. In research published in Translational Psychiatry, Wan, Du, Yang and colleagues report that stimulating the brain’s anterior cingulate cortex alleviated social deficits associated with early-life pain. The proposed mechanism is a restoration of the balance between excitatory and inhibitory neural signals, a fundamental process that determines how brain circuits respond, adapt and communicate.

Early-life pain has effects that can extend far beyond the moment of injury or medical treatment. During development, the nervous system is rapidly building connections, refining sensory pathways and establishing the networks that support emotion and social behavior. Excessive or poorly regulated pain signals during this period may alter that process. Instead of remaining confined to pain-processing circuits, these changes can influence stress responses, emotional regulation and the ability to interact with other individuals later in life.

The anterior cingulate cortex, or ACC, is particularly important in this story. Located in the frontal region of the brain, it helps integrate emotional information with attention, motivation and decision-making. It is also involved in processing the unpleasantness of pain and in evaluating social experiences. Because the ACC sits at the intersection of pain, emotion and social behavior, disturbances in its activity could provide a neural explanation for why early-life pain is linked to later difficulties with social interaction.

At the cellular level, the brain depends on a delicate equilibrium between excitation and inhibition. Excitatory neurons generally increase the likelihood that neighboring cells will fire, while inhibitory neurons suppress or constrain that activity. This excitatory/inhibitory, or E/I, balance allows neural circuits to remain flexible without becoming either silent or excessively active. If excitation dominates, networks may become unstable and hypersensitive; if inhibition dominates, communication and behavioral responses may be weakened. The study connects social deficits after early-life pain with disruption of this balance in the ACC.

Deep brain stimulation offers a way to influence such malfunctioning circuits directly. The technique uses electrical pulses delivered through precisely positioned electrodes to modify activity in targeted brain regions. Although DBS is best known clinically for treating Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor and several other neurological conditions, researchers are increasingly investigating whether it can reshape circuits involved in mood, motivation and social behavior. The new findings place the ACC among the brain regions that may be responsive to this approach.

According to the study, stimulation of the ACC improved social abnormalities linked to early-life pain while also normalizing indicators of excitatory and inhibitory signaling. This is important because it suggests that the behavioral improvement was not simply a generalized effect of activating the brain. Instead, the intervention may have acted on a specific circuit-level disturbance. By bringing opposing neural forces back toward equilibrium, DBS could make the ACC more capable of processing social information and generating appropriate responses.

The result also highlights a shift in how scientists understand the consequences of pain during development. Pain is often treated as a temporary sensory event, but developing neural systems can interpret repeated or intense pain as an organizing signal. That signal may alter synaptic strength, neuronal excitability and communication between brain regions. Over time, these changes could become embedded in circuits that regulate social engagement. The study’s emphasis on E/I balance suggests that developmental pain may produce lasting behavioral effects through measurable changes in network physiology rather than through an unexplained psychological process.

The findings are likely to attract attention because social deficits are difficult to treat and can appear across many neurological and psychiatric conditions. However, DBS is an invasive therapy involving neurosurgical implantation, and the study does not mean that the treatment is ready for routine use in people affected by early-life pain. Translating a circuit-level discovery into a safe human therapy requires extensive work, including confirmation in independent models, determination of the most effective stimulation parameters and careful assessment of possible side effects. The ACC is involved in many functions, so altering its activity could influence emotion, attention or pain perception in unwanted ways.

Even with those limitations, the research offers a potentially powerful framework for future therapies. If social difficulties can be linked to a specific imbalance between excitation and inhibition, treatments might eventually be designed to correct that imbalance with greater precision. DBS is only one possibility. Noninvasive stimulation, pharmacological treatments that selectively influence inhibitory or excitatory signaling, and therapies combining behavioral training with neuromodulation could also emerge from the same biological insight.

The study’s central message is that the developing brain may retain a capacity for repair, even after early adverse experiences have changed its circuitry. By targeting the ACC and restoring the neural balance that supports its function, deep brain stimulation improved social behavior in the reported research. The work does not erase the complexity of developmental pain, but it identifies a concrete biological pathway connecting early injury, altered brain networks and later social difficulties. That connection could help move the field closer to treatments that address not only pain itself, but also the long-term social consequences it can leave behind.

Subject of Research: Deep brain stimulation, early-life pain, social deficits, and excitatory/inhibitory balance in the anterior cingulate cortex

Article Title: Deep brain stimulation ameliorates social deficits from early-life pain by restoring excitatory/inhibitory balance in the anterior cingulate cortex

Article References: Wan, X., Du, T., Yang, D. et al. Deep brain stimulation ameliorates social deficits from early-life pain by restoring excitatory/inhibitory balance in the anterior cingulate cortex. Transl Psychiatry (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-026-04311-z

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-026-04311-z

Keywords: deep brain stimulation, early-life pain, social deficits, anterior cingulate cortex, excitatory/inhibitory balance, neuroscience, brain stimulation, developmental pain, social behavior

Researchers have revealed a microscopic engine that can convert heat into useful work while operating at temperatures only fractions of a degree above absolute zero.

Tinier than a single grain of sand, the machine marks the first demonstration of what researchers call a cyclic quantum heat engine composed of superconducting circuits, the technology behind modern quantum computers.

The findings, led by Academy Professor Mikko Möttönen, were published in Nature Communications.

A Sand-Grain-Sized Quantum Heat Engine

The tiny device, developed by researchers at Aalto University in Finland, relies on a single superconducting qubit, which represents the quantum world equivalent of a classical computer bit.

By heating, cooling, and extracting energy through quantum variations of the cycles that provide power to conventional engines by thermodynamic means, researchers say the machine’s demonstration of producing energy, while extremely small, marks a breakthrough that could one day allow for the simplification of much larger-scale quantum computers.

A flux-tunable transmon qubit—one of the most common building blocks of superconducting quantum processors—lies at the heart of the innovation. But as opposed to relying on separate hot and cold reservoirs, the Möttönen and the Aalto University research team used a single quantum circuit refrigerator capable of performing both roles.

The team guided the system through a sort of quantum version of what is known as an Otto cycle (the same essential process most gasoline engines employ) by leveraging precise control of the refrigerator and the qubit’s energy levels.

“In our experiment, we built a nanofabricated heat engine using superconducting circuits and operated it in a cryostat near absolute zero,” said lead author Tuomas Uusnäkki. “At its heart is a transmon qubit, one of the basic building blocks of modern quantum technologies.”

Single Shot Measurements on Repeat

The team also used repeated single-shot measurements to track the qubit, observing as it completed several engine cycles. This helped them calculate precisely how much heat was absorbed, as well as the amount of work produced, and the machine’s overall efficiency.

The results, they say, closely matched theoretical predictions, and now help to confirm that the device functioned as a genuine cyclic quantum heat engine.

Although this is not the first quantum heat engine, and previous demonstrations have been achieved using trapped ions, ultracold atoms, and other quantum systems, the Aalto team says this is the first that operates using superconducting circuits, which could present new possibilities for the future of quantum computing.

As quantum computers grow, such technologies could be especially helpful, since today’s superconducting processors rely on extensive networks of microwave cables connecting room-temperature electronics with processors that operate near absolute zero—the lowest temperature theoretically attainable.

These networks of cabling not only take up space, but also add to costs, while adding to the overall heat and electrical noise in systems that can also introduce interference affecting fragile quantum states.

A Look at the Future of Quantum Computing

With future refinements of their technology, the Aalto team hopes versions of their tiny engine may be able to perform control functions directly within cryogenic quantum processors, thereby reducing the need for external wiring altogether.

“Finland’s Quantum Technology Strategy envisions a quantum computer with one thousand logical qubits by 2035, which probably means hundreds of thousands of physical qubits,” Möttönen said in a statement, describing future large-scale quantum computers.

“Doing that with current technology requires millions of microwave cables costing thousands of euros each,” he added.

“The cables also introduce noise into the system,” Möttönen said. “Using autonomous devices instead would mostly eliminate the need for those cables.”

The team’s recent study, “Initial demonstration of a quantum heat engine based on dissipation-engineered superconducting circuits,” appeared in Nature Communications.

Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.

Naked mole-rats have long puzzled biologists with their striking eusocial structure, where most adults remain reproductively suppressed while a queen controls the colony’s future. Now, a new study identifies a chemical “queen odour” that links social status to endocrine control, revealing a mammalian analogue to insect queen pheromones.

The molecule, termed IPM, is enriched by the queen and acts as the key mediator of reproductive suppression in non-breeding females. When IPM is present, circulating prolactin rises while progesterone is suppressed, locking the colony into a stable reproductive hierarchy characterized by reduced conflict and maintained group cohesion.

Crucially, the team connects this behavioural outcome to the brain. Using multiple approaches—including non-invasive functional ultrasound imaging (fUSI)—they show that IPM provokes strong activation of olfactory neurons and central neural circuits. This provides a neural substrate for how a chemical cue can trigger colony-wide physiological change, rather than relying on social learning or passive association.

The experiments also clarify sensory routing. Ablating olfaction abolishes aggression initiation and lowers prolactin levels, directly tying IPM detection to reproductive suppression. While the findings are consistent with sensing through the main olfactory epithelium, the authors note that the vomeronasal system may still contribute.

Queen removal normally destabilizes colonies, leading to aggression, reproductive competition, prolactin decline, and, in extreme cases, mortality. Yet when IPM is added to queenless bedding, the colony remains stable for months. During this period, fecal progesterone metabolite levels stay low, indicating sustained ovarian quiescence alongside elevated prolactin.

The study also addresses a longstanding paradox: transferring soiled bedding and urine from parent colonies fails to maintain suppression in isolated individuals. The authors propose that IPM’s chemistry helps explain this discrepancy. As a long-chain fatty acid ester with low volatility, IPM may persist within the colony environment but fail to travel effectively over distance or survive transfer pathways that preferentially carry other chemicals.

Comparative work extends beyond naked mole-rats. IPM is detected in breeding females of four additional Fukomys species. Although reproductive suppression mechanisms may differ across species, the presence of a similar queen-linked odorant suggests convergent chemical strategies for managing reproductive skew in eusocial mammals.

Overall, the research reframes reproduction control as a chemosensory-to-endocrine pathway: IPM activates olfactory–hypothalamic signalling, elevating prolactin and inhibiting GnRH release. This “social hormone” model offers a new principle for social evolution—chemical cues can synchronize behaviour and physiology at the scale of an entire mammal colony.

Subject of Research: Reproductive suppression and social hierarchy in eusocial mammals (naked mole-rats and related Fukomys species)

Article Title: A queen odour mediates reproductive suppression in a eusocial mammal

Article References:

Khallaf, M.A., Hart, D.W., Luo, W. et al. A queen odour mediates reproductive suppression in a eusocial mammal.
Nature (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10772-5

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10772-5

Keywords: IPM; queen odour; reproductive suppression; prolactin; GnRH; olfaction; eusociality; functional ultrasound imaging; Fukomys