Past Event

How the Brain Invents the Mind

Rebecca Saxe, MIT, Dept. of Brain and Cognitive Sciences.

When we look at other people, the features visible on the outside are only a small part of what we see. We are much more interested in seeing, or inferring, what’s going on inside: other people’s thoughts, beliefs and desires. If a person checks her watch, is she uncertain about the time, late for an appointment, or bored with the conversation? If a person shoots his friend on a hunting trip, did he intend revenge or just mistake his friend for a partridge? One of the most amazing discoveries of recent human cognitive neuroscience is that humans use a specific group of brain regions for thinking about thoughts. These brain regions are intrinsically interesting, and also provide a case study in the deeper and broader question: how does the brain – an electrical and biological machine – construct abstract thoughts?