Baby Brains: Unlocking Our Humanity | Rebecca Saxe | TEDxCambridge

At MIT, Rebecca Saxe studies human brain development, in order to understand how the human mind is built. The challenges and rewards of this research connect her experiences, as a scientist and as a mother.

Rebecca Saxe is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, and an associate member of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research. Saxe was born and raised in Toronto, Canada, before studying Psychology, Philosophy, and Physiology at Oxford University in Oxford, UK. She did her PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience at MIT, and then was a member of the Harvard Society of Fellows. Her research addresses the human brain’s astonishing capacity for complex abstract thought. She is especially known for her work on “Theory of Mind”, people’s ability to think about the thoughts, beliefs, plans, hopes, and emotions of other people. Central questions in this research include: how does an adult’s brain construct thoughts about thoughts? How do these capacities develop in infancy and childhood? How is this aspect of brain development affected by the environment, and by disease?

[abouzartamassoki]

'"I am a scientist not because of the answers, but because of the questions, because of the process."
She is an amazing scientist.

[williamjayaraj]

A very rare experiment on the babies brain. Nice to see the scientist mother and her baby son taking the
fMRI scanning together. A dedicated scientist indeed.
The humanity will definitely benefit from these experiments in the future. Thanks to Dr. Rebecca Saxe.

[eda]

most inspiring person I've ever seen

[irisfora]

so interesting and new in science we should know more about it, so we could avoid many health problems in life

[jonnyplat]

Now if we could return to the state of a child like brain right hemisphere unfettered by left hemisphere dominance, at will, then all would be able to have the awareness of 'oneness' felt again as an adult in bliss.

[DeeeBoyy]

Reality is exactly whatever you honestly think it is. I think that in all that we do for others, ourselves or whatever reason we come up with, we’re still only doing the same one thing. We’re each individually just trying to get rid of our stress, forever. I often say to myself that life is the pursuit of theoretically everlasting absolute peace, perhaps one moment of stress relief at a time. Note that I do not equate everlasting absolute peace with death. What we think of as death may be but a transition to something else, that continues the stress, depending on what this reality may be, and I don’t need to be religious to deduce this. To pursue death may be a waste of all that you’ve learned. As long as you don’t know everything, new information has the potential for changing, up to, everything that you do know. Learn as much as you can about this place to increase the likelihood that you will find the real piece that you already seek.